Requirements for manufacturer supplied data for Monte Carlo Simulation: A BEAM perspective

BEAM simplifies Monte Carlo Simulations of medical linacs. Instead of writing MORTRAN code, users create input files with modules that describe the geometrical and material characteristics of beamline components. This capability allows users to model the beamline more accurately, but it also means that manufacturer supplied data must become more specific. Generic drawings are not always interpreted correctly and limit the applicability of the data to a few machines. Monte Carlo data should be provided on a machine by machine basis in numerical format, using the BEAM component module convention. The parts list for the specific machine should be examined so that exact parts are modeled. Finally the data should be ''live'' so that different patient set-ups can be modeled. An example 6 MV photon data set will be presented