Varian Medical Systems to Debut Five New Software Technologies

Varian Medical Systems is gearing up for the annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, to be held Sept. 14-17 in San Francisco, Calif., and is ready to debut five new software technologies there.

The technologies, listed below, are software and services that enable information sharing and data analytics to support better-quality cancer care:

1. The TrueBeam and Edge platforms for image-guided radiotherapy and radiosurgery. Prior users of the Edge system are using it to deliver treatments for cancer of the lung, liver, brain, and spine, which require careful, precise targeting that compensates for motion during treatment.

2. InSightive Analytics, a new interactive dashboard that organizes and presents information in a simple display for easy decision making. This software is hoped to enable oncology professionals to more effectively capitalize on their data in Varian’s ARIA oncology information system. It will enable the professionals to discover important patterns and trends in order to make more informed data-driven decisions.

3. Qumulate QA, which is a cloud-based quality assurance data management and analysis tool for analyzing and benchmarking linear accelerator quality assurance performance.

4. Velocity oncology software for gathering patient images and treatment data from a variety of sources in order to support informed decision-making.

5. RapidPlan knowledge-based treatment planning, which is a software tool that uses historical treatment plan data to increase plan quality and streamline the treatment planning process.

Varian Medical Systems posted nearly 5 percent rise in adjusted earnings per share to $1.08 for the third quarter of fiscal year 2014  (including a 6 cents impairment charge related to a portion of the company’s existing equity investment in Augmenix—a privately-held company developing minimally invasive hydrogels for radiotherapy) from $1.03 for the comparable quarter of fiscal 2013.

The company’s earnings also lie within its guidance range of $1.06 to $1.10 for the quarter. Adjusted net earnings were $115.1 million in the quarter (including the $8 million impairment charge), up 2 percent from $112.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2013.

Revenues in the quarter scaled up 3 percent to $747.7 million, thanks to strong gross orders in imaging components and particle therapy businesses, which more than offset 1 percent decline in oncology systems orders. The fall in oncology systems orders is attributable to weakness in Japan that eclipsed double-digit rise in orders in developing markets.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, Varian Medical Systems expects revenues to increase in the range of 7 to 15 percent.