Tiresias: Carl Zeiss and CONVIVO

My friends,

So, what's up with Carl Zeiss and CONVIVO? Carl Zeiss launched the new flagship for neurosurgery, of which the Optiscan’s CNVIVO is the centrepiece, at the end of June. Of course, given the lockdown state of the world it was a virtual launch, but obviously a very slick and very committed launch. The platform Kinevo 900; the centrepiece for in-vivo digital biopsy, the CONVIVO; intraoperative operative brachy-radiotherapy Intrabeam 600 had a virtual launch it at the end of June were the culmination of over ten years of research and development by Carl Zeiss and Optiscan. It is promoted with the full backing of the entire Carl Zeiss system. We should not underestimate Carl's Zeiss’s understanding of the surgical/pathology market. It is a company that has been around for 190 years and the leader in medical operative technology and medical microscopy for the last 160 years. They should know what they're doing. Some people however, given the launch, are questioning why Carl Zeiss has not given any recent orders to Optiscan. Tiresias can explain.

To Carl Zeiss, this would be the equivalent of Airbus unveiling a new revolutionary aeroplane or Lockheed Martin launching a revolutionary super advanced defence system incorporating the latest from many areas of technology. Would they allow some untrained unsupported pilots to just have a go. Of course not. And so it is with the CONVIVO. Who is going to be the 1st system the in the field? Not everyone everywhere at once. The last thing Carl Zeiss would want is to release to untrained operators and initial hiccups that could bring the system into disrepute before it has got going. It has to be given to the most select group of opinion leading experts who are going to be completely supported so there are no hiccups. Carl Zeiss is going to install their new flagship with select centres in America, Europe, and hopefully, at least one or two in Australia. They are providing the digital histopathology back up so all images can not only be viewed in the operating room, remotely by the histopathologists in the institution, as well as simultaneously by Zeiss’s histopathologist in Germany. Once all the wrinkles are ironed out, once the system is up and running, then there will have a graduated wider release. Carl Zeiss would certainly not want, after investing well over a decade in R&D, and tens or more likely hundreds of millions in treasure, to place their new flagship in the hands of untrained and unsupported amateur operators, resulting in accidents and miss-use, bringing the system into disrepute.

So, my friends, do not fret that Carl Zeiss are taking their time. It is not a sign of slow market uptake. It is a sign of Carl Zeiss commitment to the success of CONVIVO. But, my friends, Tiresias sees more in this, much much more, in all of this. Digital pathology on a much bigger scale is just being launched here. But, my friends, for now, Tiresias needs a little rest, and will let you ponder on this, of which he will write more another time.