Telepathology milestone as Optiscan gets set for commerciality
Optiscan Imaging has developed a cloud-based platform for the remote diagnosis of cancer using its remarkable medical imaging device. The company’s “pen-like” microscope is extraordinarily powerful and capable of delivering a real-time cancer diagnosis without the need for painful biopsies. The development of the cloud-based platform will allow cancer experts to diagnose cancer remotely from anywhere in the world using Optiscan’s device.
The company says its cloud-based telepathology platform has completed beta phase functionality testing and represents a major milestone on the path to commercialisation.
The project aims to allow remote access for pathologists to undertake virtual biopsy assessments using Optiscan’s exclusive, high-resolution single-cell imaging technology – without the need for an actual biopsy.
Management says the conventional biopsy approach is time-consuming for health providers, uncomfortable for patients and operationally challenging for anyone living in rural and remote areas.
‘This achievement makes the platform a potential game changer for telehealth consultations for patients who live outside of capital city areas. In the past, regional, rural and remote health facilities have lacked the dedicated pathology expertise limiting collaboration and immediate decision-making between clinicians and pathologists.’
Optiscan Imaging managing director and CEO Dr Camile Farah
The digital pathology platform partnership with Canadian software developer Prolucid Technologies began to develop artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms using Optiscan’s proprietary medical technology last year in order to enable immediate clinical decision-making.
The beta phase completion exhibits the ability to register, authenticate, and securely connect devices to the cloud platform. The company says Optiscan devices can now stream images to the cloud platform as they are acquired, enabling real-time visualization of a potential cancer by remote users. The session data can also be pushed to cloud storage for post-session review.
Optiscan Imaging managing director and chief executive officer Dr Camile Farah said: “This achievement makes the platform a potential game changer for telehealth consultations for patients who live outside of capital city areas. In the past, regional, rural and remote health facilities have lacked the dedicated pathology expertise limiting collaboration and immediate decision-making between clinicians and pathologists.”
Optiscan says it will now look to ramp up creation of a commercial platform and look to implement a minimalist version in a clinical setting, with further enhancements and features to be developed in subsequent phases.
Prolucid is an engineering company based in Ontario that specialises in custom software development for medical devices and systems. The company has helped bring a wide variety of imaging, diagnostic, analytics and cloud-connected medical technologies to market for over 15 years for customers ranging from startups to large multinationals.
Optiscan’s partnership with the Canadian software developer aims to develop a software application that will support image collection, processing and tissue analytics.
Every now and then a seriously disruptive piece of medical technology comes along that is capable of scaling rapidly and Optiscan’s medical imaging technology would appear to fit that bill.
Biopsies that involve the slicing and subsequent analysis of skin tissue for cancer at a different location are both painful and inefficient. Post surgery biopsies that are analysed a day or two after surgery can result in the terrifying advice that the surgeon “did not get it all” and the trip back to the operating table just as recovery begins is never a happy one.
If Optiscan can convince the market that its technology is at least as effective as a biopsy in detecting cancer, then it stands to reason that its uber-powerful microscope just might become the standard of care in what is a multi-billion dollar cancer detection market. Its latest move to allow experts to access its equipment from anywhere in the world via the new telepathology platform will also give it serious scale.
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