Tiresias; pleased

"Anyone who thinks the sky is the limit has limited imagination."

James Clerk Maxwell

My friends,

Well, my friends, Tiresias is pleased with this week's developments in Optiscan. First the continuing board changes. The retirement of Mr Graeme Mutton, a long-term substantial shareholder, who fulfilled an essential role at a critical moment in Optiscan’s history, has earned his retirement. The new board member, Ms Karen Borg, has a shareholders’ dream Curriculum Vitae. Of her previous and current business activities, including medical technology sales with Johnson & Johnson, President of ResMed, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, what took Tiresias’s eye is that she speaks German. This didn’t just take Tiresias’s eye, it positively excited him. You see my friends; many have underestimated the difficulty of a technology start-up from Melbourne dealing with a 170-year-old Teutonic medical technology giant. Tiresias understands Teutonic technology chauvinism and Tiresias is certain that our new board member can deal with Carl Zeiss at a level that has not been previously possible. This, just by itself, is a major step up.

But there is more. The recent changes are also finally showing results in the way the company communicates with its shareholders and the market. Tiresias has, in the past, been disappointed by the company’s communication. This week’s quarterly was a very pleasant change, not only in the progress by the company, but in the clarity of the communique. It shows that there is a major change in the corporate engine room of Optiscan.

Let us again remind ourselves what this is all about. Tiresias understands the price pullback from the recent highs has disconcerted a few of his friends and holders. To repeat, Tiresias sees Optiscan Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy enabling Real-Time, Digital, 3-D networked Cancer Pathology both in diagnostic screening clinics, and in the operating room. In the clinic it will replace excessive blind tissue biopsies and accurately direct biopsies and excisions. In the operating theatre, it will replace frozen section biopsy and will enable accurate cellular level cancer margin determination. Every cancer clinic and every cancer operating room will need Optiscan CLE. Carl Zeiss is showing the way, starting with the most difficult field, brain tumours. The Carl Zeiss/Optiscan CONVIVO, being trialled now in a number of centres in Europe and the United States, is showcasing real-time histopathology, both intraoperative and ex-vivo histopathology in action. Carl Zeiss is developing an on-line histopathology expertise enabling real-time worldwide pathological diagnosis to any operating room or clinic anywhere in the world. Many other cancers represent low hanging fruit for Optiscan. Is it too strong, is it hyperbolic, to say that this is revolutionary? The sky is indeed not the limit.