1. A system for automated segmentation of anatomical structures in image data comprising: a digital image input for receiving at least one digital image of an anatomical structure and; a storage device, coupled to the image input for storing the at least one digital image; and a processor coupled to the storage device and configured to: receive the at least one digital image; analyze the at least one digital image and automatically locate at least one anatomical landmark; select a template from a database of pre-defined templates based upon the at least one anatomical landmark; segment the at least one digital image by applying a coarse segmentation and a fine segmentation to obtain an optimized segmented template, wherein applying the coarse segmentation comprises, for each of a plurality of sub-regions of the anatomical structure, applying a corresponding sub-region of the selected template to the anatomical structure, calculating a first edge response, deforming the sub-region of the selected template, calculating a deformation edge response, selecting the sub-region or deformed sub-region of the template having a highest edge response, and combining the highest edge-response sub-region from each of the plurality of sub-regions into a single coarse-segmented template, wherein applying the fine segmentation comprises, for each of a plurality of patches of the coarse-segmented template, calculating an edge-response of the patch relative to the anatomical structure, deforming the patch, calculating an edge-response of the deformed patch, selecting the patch or deformed patch having a highest edge-response, and combining the highest edge-response patches into a single optimized segmented template.