Performance assessment of photon migration instruments:: the MEDPHOT protocol

We propose a comprehensive protocol for the performance assessment of photon migration instruments. The protocol has been developed within the European Thematic Network MEDPHOT (optical methods for medical diagnosis and monitoring of diseases) and is based on five criteria: accuracy, linearity, noise, stability, and reproducibility. This protocol was applied to a total of 8 instruments with a set of 32 phantoms, covering a wide range of optical properties. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.