OCT Advanced Digital Electronics (OCTADE)

Michelson Diagnostics is an independent UK start-up which has launched the world's first CEmarked, FDA-cleared OCT scanner for diagnosis & monitoring of non-melanoma skin cancer and other skin conditions. Our 'VivoSight' scanner is already being used in a small number of dermatology clinics in USA and Germany on a commercial basis and has the support of leading dermatologists. Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is the most common type of cancer in the developed world, cases outnumbering all other cancers worldwide. It is particularly common in elderly people with Caucasian skin type. Recent papers state that more than $2BN is spent annually in the US on NMSC, and the number of new cases there is > 3.5M p.a. and growing 4% p.a. Currently, NMSC is diagnosed visually and by taking a skin biopsy. Visual diagnosis is inaccurate; biopsy is painful, costly ($150+), slow (2 weeks for result) and leaves a scar. Our VivoSight scanner is set to revolutionise the diagnosis & treatment of NMSC by providing a real time view of sub-surface skin structure enabling cancer nests to be directly visualised. This enables immediate decisions on the diagnosis and location of treatment saving time and money and reducing number of unnecessary biopsies and surgery. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) utilises high speed data acquisition & data processing algorithms, to produce a real time sub-surface image of skin tissue. The 'state of the art' is to use a PC Workstation equipped with expensive DAQ cards for this task. This means that the OCT system is bulky, expensive, and has limited video frame rate. Our dermatologist customers demand compact & affordable scanners with high video frame rate. 'OCTADE' will involve development and evaluation of a prototype digital processor card to replace the PC Workstation. This will enable development & launch of a smaller, lighter, faster scanner that is less costly to build, resulting in much faster customer adoption and much greater profitability.