Tiresias: This is not The Last Post

"Look at the stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred-and-first blow it will split into in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before."

Jacob Riis

My friends,

Tiresias has posted over a hundred epistles, so far. He has wandered far, wide, and deep. He has looked deep into the past and pondered the future. He has enjoyed each and every one of those posts and trusts that many of his friends would have enjoyed and gained something from some of them. It has been his pleasure expounding on all the aspects of Optiscan’s Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy, its paradigm shifting applications in cancer the real-time diagnosis and treatment of many cancers in the clinic and in the operating theatre. Tiresias understands that though he has said much, he is certain that for all he has said is but a fraction of the ultimate applications that this technology will be used for. Tiresias believes that we are now on the very cusp of the long-awaited breakout and the realisation of the potential of in-vivo real-time digital histopathology pathology in cancer diagnosis and cancer therapy and the realisation of the complete transformation and revolution of histopathology of cancer and probably non cancer histopathology.

Tiresias recalls some of subjects he has touched on and some which he explored in more depth. Being Tiresias, he particularly enjoyed putting CLE in a medical historical context. He reminds his friends how Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy in-vivo real-time microscopic imaging completes the medical imaging revolution and parallels the macroscopic in-vivo medical imaging completed by the introduction of CT, MRI, and PET scanning. It is his strong conviction that in-vivo digital microscopy is as transformational as these macroscopic imaging technologies have been.

Of course, being Tiresias, the stars, augury, Fortuna, and philosophy are close to his heart. Tiresias has been very particular in posting at the same time each week. He has repeated or rephrased some of his ideas, but he does not want to risk repeating himself and overstaying his welcome and becoming tiresome would be an insult to Zeus, who oversees Xenia, the sacred guest host relationship and responsibility. Rather than risking this, Tiresias will enter a new period, and make occasional visits, when the spirit moves, when the stars align, and as what he considers to be imminent developments are announced. He thinks that he has reasonably, honestly and clearly explained Optiscan’s technology and its application to the problems of cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment offers.

A final declaration: Tiresias is a of course a significant shareholder, and his recommendations and declarations have been made with his friends knowing this. He reassures his friends that, during his regular posting period, he has not sold a single share. He has no intentions of selling. He feels his responsibility to his friends in this very strongly. Tiresias is aware of the vengefulness of the god Horokos, that child of Zeus and Eris, delivered by the Erinyes (the Furies), to be the plague upon oath breakers.

Tiresias looks forward to writing in the not-too-distant future and to commentate on expected progress.