ABSTRACT
At that time Corrigan’s vision was technically not to be realized as he wished, but he gave a preview of upcoming applications of imaging methods. Gil Brogdon, who summarized all the recent forensically relevant radiology techniques of the 20th century in his 1998 book Forensic Radiology, [2] provided more concrete visionary previews and guidelines:
It is believed that forensic scientists in other disciplines would nd radiologists in their area interested in cooperative efforts. The sharing of interdisciplinary skills and knowledge would improve the economy and effectiveness of investigative efforts, prevent some false starts and/or reinventions of well-worn wheels, and most important, expand scientic horizons. (p. 338)
From the forensic viewpoint the Virtopsy Group at Bern University began by evaluating and validating different
imaging modalities. Over the years, the Virtopsy Project (https://www.virtopsy.com) has developed into a multitool documentation and analysis research project consisting of the following:
3D body surface imaging methods• Multidetector and multislice computed tomogra-• phy (CT) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)• Data merging of surface and radiological data• High-resolution micro-CT and micro-MRI (MR • microscopy) Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (time-of-death • determinations) Image-guided percutaneous biopsy• Postmortem angiography• Synthetic body model development•
The rst results were presented at the beginning of the new millennium and later in a special “new imaging trends in forensic medicine” focus session at the 80th German Forensic Meeting in Interlaken in 2001, organized by the Forensic
Institute of the University of Bern. The basic publications followed in the years afterward.
