About

Accelerate research together
Today, the proton therapy (PT) community needs software applications that can enable clinical research on more patient data. To create these tools we have to work together, collaborate and share knowledge and code. Open-source software is the right vehicle to advance faster and so, through a communal effort, to produce relevant applications for clinical research in a timely manner.
Challenges in PT are increasingly complex and therefore require multiple, bundled-up, software modules to prevail. An isolated code cannot anymore bring a satisfactory solution in a rapidly growing climate. OpenPATh creates and supports fast software prototyping to address research needs in PT. Made for clinicians, medical physicists and researchers so that together we can ease and speed-up research.



OpenPATh is an open collaboration presently including the following entities:
  • Universite catholique de Louvain (UCL)
  • Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)
  • Ion Beam Applications SA (IBA)
It is the mission of OpenPATh to identify the challenges within the PT community and bring together various, relevant, open-source projects to provide the software infrastructure that can enable clinical research. OpenPATh unequivocally maps the PT research challenges to their software application solution. Aside, OpenPATh genuinely advertises open-source as a working strategy for generating fast software value within the research community.





OpenPATh works threefold
Technical
Creates software prototypes. Shows what software modules to use, how to interface these bricks and on a case-by-case basis how to automate their linkage.
Support
Guides researchers interested to bring their code in open-source. Provides information about open-source licenses and intellectual property compatibility. Offers help on how to interface exiting software modules.
Promotion
Encourages collaboration and sharing in the PT community. Advocates the open-source philosophy as an efficient mean to enable research and increase output.