Thali calls the technique "virtopsy," or virtual autopsy. Specifically, his research team has adapted the twin medical-imaging technologies of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create three-dimensional, high-resolution computer images of a crime victim's internal organs.
2004 — Ryan Bigge, "Virtopsy", New York Times Magazine, 12 December 2004:
Thali and his colleagues have already performed more than 100 virtopsies, with each virtual analysis confirmed by an actual autopsy afterward.
The researchers are already pioneers of virtual autopsies, or "virtopsies", which use non-invasive imaging of a body inside and out rather than the radical post-mortem surgery typically used to determine cause of death.
Michael Thali, a professor at the University of Berne, and his colleagues have developed a system called "virtopsy," which since 2006 has been used to examine all sudden deaths or those of unnatural causes in the Swiss capital.
Other forensic pathology laboratories around the world have introduced imaging techniques into their autopsy procedures, but the Bern operation - which performed its 100th virtopsy last year - is by far the most advanced.
2011 — Jay Kalra, Medical Errors and Patient Safety: Strategies to Reduce and Disclose Medical Errors and Improve Patient Safety, De Gruyter (2011), →ISBN, page 99:
An autopsy that does not penetrate the body in any way, known as a virtopsy, can be performed via the use of MRI and multislice CT scans.
"If you use the MRI together with the CT scan, toxicological tests and tissue sampling, you can get results almost as precise as from an autopsy," Israel's chief coroner says. "This is the wave of the future — autopsy by non-invasive means, or 'virtopsy,' as it's called."
