Innovative Vision Solutions expects prototype by end of 2014
By Tom Ballard, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Initiatives, Pershing Yoakley & Associates, P.C.
If everything goes as planned, Innovative Vision Solutions expects to have a prototype available by the end of the year to show prospective customers and investors.
That’s the word from Jim Goddard, Co-Founder of the company along with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) colleague Shaun Gleason.
The duo teamed-up nearly two years ago to found the start-up that is focused on a markerless motion correction approach for medical imaging tests using technologies such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
As described in an article posted about two years ago on teknovation.biz, the correction of motion-induced image blur is critical to the clarity and accuracy of the images that are captured.
“You can tell people to lie still,” Gleason told us at the time, but that it is not always possible, and the use of anesthesia is expensive as well as having undesirable side effects on the patient. He cited challenges such as children, who move, as well as those with diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
“Normal breathing even introduces some motion,” Gleason said.
Fast forward 24 months, and the duo has now licensed the technology that they need from ORNL to proceed with the development of the prototype.
“We’re trying to get into a position to raise funds,” Goddard told us in a recent interview. He expects the prototype “will help us get a lot more interest.”
During our recent follow-up discussion, we asked Goddard if anything had changed as far as Innovative Vision Solutions’ technology and business plans.
“The general purpose is the same,” he said, explaining that the intent is still to develop “products that address the problem of motion in medical imaging.”
Like many start-ups in the life science sector, which includes medical devices, Goddard said, “The company is looking at both clinical and preclinical applications. The plan is to address both. There is usually less regulation entering the non-human space, but which comes first has not yet been determined.”
Goddard said Innovative Vision Solutions has been funded thus far through investment from friends and family. If everything goes well with the development of the prototype, he expects that to change in 2015.
