New software for digital data management and automating quality assurance (QA) and regulatory requirements is being introduced by Varian Medical Systems in order to make it possible for cancer clinics to implement advanced radiotherapy treatments more easily.

Varian's radiation therapy systems make the use of radiotherapy techniques such as intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) easier and swifter by integrating software that automates QA for busy radiographers. When used as a regular part of a comprehensive QA program, the software developed by Argus -- which was acquired by Varian -- can shorten the time needed to perform pre-treatment QA, greatly reduce dependence on film-based treatment planning and help organize records for regulatory compliance.

IMRT is a radiotherapy process that enables clinicians to precisely target the radiation dose at the cancerous tumor while protecting surrounding healthy tissue, as well as automatically varying the dose strength to kill the tumor more effectively.