Tiresias: To talk of many things

“The truth will appear under the microscope."

Patrik Svensson

My friends,

Tiresias is back, though still somewhat jetlagged. Rumours of longer absence and suggestions of his selling, he can assure, were completely unfounded. Tiresias stands and holds firmly. Tiresias is a true believer. Tiresias is in for the long haul.

As his long-term friends know, Tiresias is a student of the stars and was hoping to get a glimpse of the northern hemisphere constellations and current alignments. Unfortunately, both North America and Europe are so light polluted that the stellar observations were impossible, even away from population centres.

Though away, Tiresias remained close. He notes several developments at Optiscan. First, there was employment of new staff, specifically for sales. Second, there was affirmation of continuing purchases from Carl Zeiss, albeit at a relatively low rate. Third, Tiresias subscribed to a Carl Zeiss Webinar with Mark Preul, head neurosurgeon at the Barrow Institute; a neurosurgeon and a neuropathologist in Germany; discussing a recent neurosurgical trial at the Barrow Institute, of the CONVIVO. This was a comparison of using the CONVIVO in vivo, in real time, in the surgery and ex-vivo. What was very gratifying and confirmatory for Tiresias was the excitement of Preul as to how good the instrument is in the actual operation. The CONVIVO is actually better in-vivo, in real time, operated by the neurosurgeon than ex vivo on biopsied tissue. Preul also indicated that the learning curve for the use of in vivo instruments in neurosurgery is very short. There had been cancers that the brain was difficult, that the pulsation of the brain and blood would interfere with a in vivo real time histopathological image acquisition. Preul completely dismisses this in that the neurosurgeons were very quickly quite facile with the instrument. It requires only several days for the surgeon to learn to use the instrument and within several weeks and found it easy to use and more accurate than ex vivo or frozen section examinations. Suffice to say, Tiresias is no doubt as to the role of Optiscan’s confocal laser endomicroscopy in neurosurgery of brain tumours. Tiresias expects that Carl Zeiss must soon start to extend the CONVIVO to other first line neurosurgical centres around the world, and hopefully soon, even into Australia. As his friends know, compared to the whole market for confocal laser endo microscopy, neurosurgery is a relatively small field. Nevertheless, it is an important field, an emotional field, flag-ship, and a bellwether for cancer surgery. Cancer brain the most difficult field, and the use of CLE for real-time, in-vivo, digital histopathology in brain tumour surgery should lead very quickly to approvals demands for its in all other cancer surgery.

The other item which Tiresias noted, and which his friends would have also seen, is that Optiscan was a platinum sponsor of the American Academy of Oral Medicine (AAOM), just this week, in Memphis Tennessee. Tiresias also understands that the Managing Director attended and was a speaker at the conference. This is my friends is an essential part of the process, an essential next step, as we anticipate FDA application for oral cancer surgery. This exposure at the AAOM is obviously, in anticipation of FDA application, and the employment of sales staff dovetails well and indicate a coherent strategy. This exposure, with a knowledgeable MD presenter and a recognised leader in the field, is something quite new for Optiscan.

My friends, Tiresias is happy and happy to be back.