For over twenty years Optiscan has bee developing confocal...

For over twenty years Optiscan has bee developing confocal microscopy applications. Along the way there have been promising developements
and major disappointments. The main difficulty that Optiscan has encountered is that it has been introducing new technology to conservative users. Dermatologists, endoscopists, and surgeons are very conservative lot, reluctant try anything new that forces them out of their comfort zone, regardless of the advantages to patients.They have relied on cytologists and frozen section biopsies in the operating room to guide them in cancer surgery. These are limited, expensive, time consuming, and inaccurate, giving inaccurate results and unduly prolonging operations, by hours. Though Optiscan has continued to improve and develop their technology, suddenly, and through no real effort of their own, and by happy circumstances, a new era has arrive ant its time has come.

The new era is hear because of two major technologies now being used and combined in Optiscan's instruments, which will revolutionize intraoperative surgical pathology and cancer surgery. The two developments are;
- Machine learning/artificial intelligence
- new highly specific in-vivo dyes.
AI will enable the cancer surgeon instant intraoperative signal, without him/her having to know any histopathology whatsoever.It is something like a metal detector which will "beep" if a cancer cell is present in the operative field. This, combine with the new dyes, developed at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and now working with Optiscan, is nothing short of a revolution in cancer surgery and cancer treatment. There is no need for guessing, closing when their is cancer still present, and no need for inaccurate and time consuming frozen section. The surgeon simple operates and scans with the Optiscan hand held probe which signals a clear field or presence of cancer. These cells, which are invisible to the eye will be signaled and can then be seen and resected.

It is about to start with neurosurgery, with oral surgery and breast surgery to follow quickly and then the rest of cancer surgery. Each of these are a company maker, but oral cancer to be the mega-application.