About Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS) Version 2.7, BMDS Wizard, and This Quick Start Guide
BMDS 2.7 is no longer under active development. With a few exceptions, most models are maintained in BMDS 3.x.
ICF no longer offers or supports BMDS Wizard.
About the Quick Start Guide
These pages contain the essential information you need to begin running and productively using EPA’s Benchmark Dose Software 2.7 (BMDS) and ICF'sExit BMDS Wizard applications to facilitate a benchmark dose (BMD
BMDAn exposure due to a dose of a substance associated with a specified low incidence of risk, generally in the range of 1% to 10%, of a health effect; or the dose associated with a specified measure or change of a biological effect.) analysis.
This Quick Start Guide is not a comprehensive user guide. Its primary goal is to walk you through exercises that teach you the mechanics of loading data into the programs, specifying options or parameters, running the models, and then viewing and assessing the results.
Each product’s user guide will have more details that are beyond the scope of this Quick Start. For that reason, the Quick Start will refer you at certain points to other resources, such as the BMDS User Manual (located in the BMDS application folder), BMDS Wizard User's Reference Guide (included with the BMDS Wizard), BMDS online training videos, or the BMD Technical Guidance.
Which Should I Use: BMDS or BMDS Wizard?
Depending on your needs, you may choose to do your benchmark dose modeling with either BMDS or BMDS Wizard. The BMDS install package for the current version of BMDS includes the BMDS Wizard.
BMDS is recommended for a quick individual model run on a dataset. It can also work on a larger variety of model types and specialized models than the BMDS Wizard.
BMDS Wizard is a Microsoft Excel-based shell that simplifies and facilitates the documentation of BMD modeling for continuous, dichotomous, and dichotomous-cancer datasets. The Wizard is recommended if you need a complete analysis of and documentation for one or more datasets, especially if your results will support a risk assessment, such as an Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment.
BMDS Wizard can also export Microsoft Word-formatted reports that employ the latest EPA-approved reporting format.