Claron Technology, a developer of software for advanced visualization and analysis of medical images, and Hectec of Landshut, Germany, a developer of digital orthopedic surgery planning systems, have launched a long-term partnership for joint development of orthopedic technologies.

As part of the agreement, Toronto-based Hectec will license Claron’s Withinsight Framework (WIF) medical image visualization and analysis toolkit and its SpineMapper engine for automated mapping of spinal anatomical landmarks.

Since 2008, Claron’s WIF platform has provided companies with development tools for medical imaging software applications by providing building blocks for correlated viewing, segmentation, registration and abnormality detection, as well as controlling multiple data volumes, clipping and colorizing spatial regions. 

The SpineMapper engine leverages Claron’s patented fast whole-body atlas-based registration to locate the spine and identify anatomical landmarks in CT studies.