October 2008
Diamond Partners of CoRIPS
Vertual Ltd become Diamond Partnrs of The College of Radiographers Industry Partnership Scheme (CoRIPS). This scheme allows industry to collaborate with the Society and College (SCoR) and provide financial support for research and educational projects.
Founder Andy Beavis of Vertual accepted the Diamond Partner Plaque from the President of the College at London Southbank University.
September 2008
Vertual at ESTRO in Gothenburg
Vertual demonstrated VERT on a purpose built 3D Auditorium on Varian's stand at ESTRO. The hourly VERT shows run throughout the conference were soon fully booked. In total some 400 delegates enjoyed the 3D experience ofbeing in a virtual radiotherapy treatment room. The highight of the show was VERT's immersive 3D visualization of Varian's RapidArc treatment.
August 2008
Vertual sets up its International Marketing Team
Arthur Kay is appointed Director of International Marketing and Sales for Vertual Ltd. Kay has 35 years experience as a senior executive in the international radiotherapy equipment business. He has had highly successful appointments with Philips and Varian.
December 2007
Project Excellence award
The three Founders of Vertual win the most prestigous Project Excellence award "BT Flagship Award for Innovation" for their VERT project at the 2007 BCS IT Industry Awards. The Founders were also Runners Up for the Social Contribution Project Excellence Award for their VERT project. This outstanding success was reported in Computer Weekly's Virtual Training Wins Gong article. Available here.
Government Cancer Strategy recommends VERT
The Cancer Reform Strategy (Department of Health) released by the UK Government in December 2007 sets out the Cancer Strategy for England until 2012. The strategy recognised that the poor learning experiences of the radiotherapy workforce in the clinical setting contributed to the high attrition rate (see 4.30 of Report). To address this problem the report recommended the introduction of Virtual Environments for Radiotherapy Treatments (VERT) into radiotherapy training sites throughout England. To achieve this recommendation the Government has provided £5M of capital funding to provide VERT at 10 Universities and some 40 radiotherapy treatment centres in England.