We recently published an article about new features in Invivo 5 and we are honored to have an expert from Anatomage to share with us his expertise and thoughts about  Invivo and Cone Beam CT. Here is the interview.

Q/ Hi and thank you for accepting our interview request. Before we start, can you tell the readers more about yourself Dr. Chenin?

First I want to thank you for this interview opportunity, and for the possibility to contribute to your website. I’m a big fan of MARCILAN and also an owner (one of the first) of your iCBCT iPhone application, so its my pleasure. As for myself, I am very involved in 3D imaging as the Director of Clinical Affairs with Anatomage Inc., and I teach as adjunct faculty at the University of the Pacific Orthodontics Department, and at UNLV School of Dental Medicine in the Clinical Sciences department. I really enjoy being a part of the development of new 3D imaging applications and also helping private clinicians, students and faculty learn and teach these new applications. 3D imaging is really changing the potential and practice of dentistry and I’m very grateful to be a part of it.

Q/ Some users have heard about the company Anatomage but others may have not. Can you tell us more about Anatomage?

Sure, Anatomage is a 3D imaging software, service and technology company based in San Jose California, focused on developing and advancing the potential of 3D imaging for dental and medical applications. The company is five years old, growing fast, and we have a great relationship with our customers, Universities, and the 3D industry, whose support has made many things possible in the five years Anatomage has been around.

Q/ What do you think about the current status of Cone Beam CT?

Well in short; its revolutionary! It has and continues to change many aspects of diagnostic and clinical dentistry. A similar trend was seen in medicine with the advent of medical CT machines, it was not long before almost all fields of medicine were benefited and, without being an overstatement, totally revolutionized with the ability to see patients’ anatomy in 3D. And now with the advent of Cone Beam CT, a dental specific CT machine with a fraction of the radiation and a fraction of the cost, it has and continues to revolutionize so much of dentistry.

Q/ Invivo 5 just came out. Are you excited about the new features? Can you briefly tell the readers what’s new?

Yes, we are very excited for the new release of Invivo5, there are a handful of great new features that will make it much more powerful. One of biggest is a whole new generation of CBCT imaging, what we call Cosmetic CBCT. With Cosmetic CBCT, we can fuse the CBCT scan to stone model scans and intra-oral photography, making a big leap forward towards the concept of the virtual patient. Invivo5 also includes a whole new type of volume rendering that looks amazingly realistic, just like real bone. We have a new TMJ layout feature, new video sequencing features, file sharing features, and a general face-lift of the interface design, it looks much more slick now. In fact, you did a great job at going through these features in your Invivo5 review posting on January 12^th , I’d recommend readers to read that posting as well.

Q/ Are there any specific requirements for Invivo 5?

The critical requirement is pretty much the same; a good graphic card. We recommend the NVIDIA graphic cards, with at least 512mb of memory. Before we recommended at least 256mb of memory in the card, so that requirement has gone up. It also helps to have more RAM, but the standard 2GB is fine.

Q/ We noticed that it is now called Invivo instead of InvivoDental. Did you just shorten the name or were there other reasons?

Yes, the name is now Invivo5. This helps isolate exactly which version you have just by the name of it, as we are currently on version 5.0 or Invivo5. Also, Invivo is more general as we do have a fair amount of customers who use Invivo for things other than dental applications, most still focused on cranio-facial applications, but the main focus of Invivo is still dental by far.

Q/ We know Invivo 5 just came out. Any plans for Invivo 6 that you can share with us?

Invivo6 is in the works, but its really top secret at this point. But what I can say is that just like all the other upgrades of Invivo over the years, the new features are very significant new applications, not just minor bug fixes and the like, which are done in between big releases. This really keeps our customers excited and our competition far behind. However, one thing to mention is that we are also making plug-in modules for Invivo and one of the next to come out is a 3D cephalometrics module that will be very important in the overall path of orthodontics towards a 3D cephalometric reality. Up until this point, 3D cephalometrics has been mostly employed in the realm of research, but with this efficient and powerful module, it will open up a new era of 3D cephalometrics in clinical practice, not to mention its facilitation of 3D cephalometric in research as well.

Q/ I use Mac and Windows at my work environment and there might be other users who do that. Does Anatomage have something for Mac users?

Currently our software is totally Windows OS based, however with programs like Boot Camp, its very easy to install and use on a Mac computer. Many of our customers use Invivo on their Mac computers.

Q/ We -at Marcilan- try to support users who speak different languages. In terms of language localization or multilingual support, does Anatoamge intend to support languages other than English?

Yes, we think this is very important too, we just launched a Japanese version and many other languages are soon to come.

Q/ Speaking about support, where would users go if they need help from Anatomage?

We have a great support team that our users have access to, both by phone, email and webinars. Each customer has access to online training and can ask us questions any time. We have made a full video tutorial series, so if anybody is in need of it, they can call Anatomage support at 408-885-1474 ext 3 to get more info on it. Anybody who is not a current user can just call in or email us at info@anatomage.com for more information. We do regular demonstrations webinars in groups or one-on-one, so if anybody is interested in a demo, they can contact us directly.

Q/ Were there any challenges during the development process of the new version of Invivo?

Well, I am more on the Clinical / Educational side of things, but our engineers work very hard making new applications. I would say the biggest challenge for everyone here is that we are making things that have never been done before, we are not interested in coping other software or technology, we make developments that are new and ground breaking. At the heart of all this progress is Anatomage’s CEO, Jack Choi PhD, who is very innovative and ambitious, so stay tuned as much more is sure to come.

Q/ Are there any news about new coming products from Anatomage?

The next release is the 3D Cephalometrics module and another one called Medical Design Studio. The 3D cepholometrics module I have already mentioned, and the 3D Medical Design Studio is a full segmentation, modeling, and surgical simulation software. It also allows STL files to be imported, exported and manipulated for physical model manufacturing with stereolithography. Thus completing the circle from virtual CBCT images to physical models. Both new products are to be released very soon and will be optional modules that can be added to Invivo5.

Q/ Where do you see CBCT going in the upcoming years? What do you think the future will be so to speak?

Well, there are three broad areas to consider; the machines, the software, and associated services. In terms of machines, we will see the machine progressing in terms of faster scan times, with less radiation, more settings such as different resolutions and FOV sizes, finer resolutions, more hybrid options, and possibly even connections to other types of diagnostic machines, either through software interfaces or directly with the hardware. We will continue to see growth in the purchase and adoption of CBCT machines as well. In terms of software, this is where many of the applications will be developed, as it is in the manipulation of the data that most new potential is achieved. Software is becoming more advanced with new kinds of treatment options, and will continue to expand with more treatment types, and advancements on current ones. Sharing the data with other practitioners is also very important and thus collaboration with other specialists will be facilitated, as is the case with new features in Invivo5 that allow for files to be uploaded to our secure server right from the software and shared with other specialists involved in the case.

Another function that is growing is the convergence of CBCT data with many other digital data sets of the patient, this is also the case with our generation of Cosmetic CBCT where we can fuse stone models or intra-oral scans with CBCT scans and intra-oral photography. I predict that almost any type of digital patient data will somehow eventually be combined or included along with CBCT data, and it will essentially be the matrix of it all. We shall see trends in the convergence of more restorative and CAD/CAM options, and occlusion and jaw tracking as well. In short, what is happening is the creation of a more and more complete virtual patient with each new development. This segues right into the next category, which is the associated services that are currently a part of this, and will continue to grow in importance and number. Currently implant surgical guides and stereolithographic modeling and manufacturing are possible, but we will also see more services being developed as well, making an era of many high-tech 3D laboratory and/or in-office options. The virtual treatment plans will result in physical therapeutic devices and full treatment solutions, thus completing the circle from diagnostics, treatment planning, to imaging guided treatment. Several image guided treatment devices and services are currently possible, the biggest being the surgical guide for implants, but I expect a lot of growth in this area.

In summary, we will see the convergence of many types of patient data, more treatment planning options, and more clinical solutions; with CBCT scans as the matrix of it all.

Q/ Thank you for your time with us Dr. Chenin. We appreciate it, any last words you’d like to give to our readers?

I’d like to thank you again and anyone reading this for their time and interest, and I would also say “stay tuned”, as the rate of progress in 3D technology is stunning. CBCT technology is not some distant future, as very exciting things are happening right now, are possible right now, but even more exciting is that its still growing very fast and amazing things are still to come.