Monday, July 14, 2003

Med Tech

Surgeons get 3-D views with zooming stereoscope

By Dyke Hendrickson

A small Tyngsboro company plans to provide dental surgeons and other medical professionals with the technology that will enable them to operate with the help of 3-D amplification units.

StereoImaging Corp. was founded in 2000 to develop a zoomable stereoscopic surgical microscope that outputs 3-D stereo video images.

The company is currently developing its product for the market, and could be selling units by mid-fall.

"Surgeons often use amplification to help them in their work," said Luis Figarella, vice president of the five-employee company. "But not all are 3-D, which enables them to recognize depth when they are using their tools.

"We are developing a product that provides a surgeon with a better view, and it will be ergonomically designed to allow a better level of comfort to a person on his feet."

StereoImaging, a private, bootstrapped operation, initially plans to target dental surgeons. These medical professionals often must peer into a patient's mouth and execute procedures that ostensibly would benefit from an enhanced view of the subject area.

Company officials also intend to sell to medical surgeons, another group that relies on clear vision and accurate amplification.

Phil McKinley, company president and one of the engineers on the project, said his team is targeting medical professionals who have the revenue flow to consider such a device.

Officials say the unit will cost between $17,000 and $25,000.

A key feature of the device is the fact that it both amplifies and provides a 3-D image. (The term stereoscopic is used to indicate an optical instrument that blends two slightly different pictures of the same subject to give the effect of depth).

Company officials say that many medical professionals have a camera attachment for the display of video. This helps in surgery, and in teaching.

Because this camera captures mono-scopic video (single sensor), the image in the monitor is "flat," and not particularly helpful for operations where depth must be judged in the administration of cutting or drilling.

Surgeons have to stoop over the unit to see into an eyepiece, but StereoImaging proposes to offer alternatives to this awkward posture.

It plans to insert its technology into projectors, LCD panels or head-mounted units, depending on the preference of the user.

The company is currently engineering units in preparation for approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Other principals include Harry McKinley (father of Phil McKinley), Jay Dowling and Art Woodbury.

"We've had good response from dental professionals in the area who have seen it," Figarella said. "We've been told we have a valuable product at a price that prospective users will pay."

Phil McKinley said that no one is selling into the niche that StereoImaging is targeting.

Zeiss, the large German optical maker, makes microscopes for the medical trade but none that have the stereo-video component in the form that his company is developing, he said.