SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Optra SCAN, a division of Optra Systems Inc., announced it has been appointed as the sole digital pathology system to automate a 10,000 patient study by the Government of India Enterprise’s Biotechnology Research wing. The study will be conducted to enhance diagnostics techniques and improve treatment options through the adoption of innovative technologies.
Affordable Digital Pathology
Due to the large size of the study, the Biotechnology Industry Research wing has determined the Optra SCAN™ System to be an Affordable Digital Pathology System to improve the speed of diagnosis. A startling revelation by the World Health Organization (WHO) stated there are more than 2.4 million cancer cases in India, as a result of a paradigm shift in the disease pattern from communicable to non-communicable disease, like cancer, diabetes and hypertension. As the first affordable end-to-end, whole slide scanning digital pathology system compared to existing market players, the Optra SCAN™ system will be installed for automated digital pathology in over nine large institutions across India, including hospitals and laboratories.
Crucial Benefits to Automating Pathology
Optra SCAN’s high resolution imaging suite would significantly contribute in automating pathology, yielding two major benefits extremely crucial for the said mission: a) Faster turn-around: Improve speed of diagnosis and productivity of pathologists; b) Accuracy: Reduce false negatives and improve the precision of measurements.
Founder and CEO Abhi Gholap attested, “Unlike Digital Radiology, Digital Pathology did not grow multifold over the last decade. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of affordability of these systems intended to replace century old conventional microscopes. Digital Pathology systems typically cost anywhere between $100k to $300k, compared to $5k microscopy systems - this remained a big hurdle for adoption. In emerging markets like India, China, South Africa etc. such exorbitant costs are forcing pathologists to still use age old microscopes. Optra SCAN promises to eliminate such cost hurdles completely. Working as an approved R&D unit of the Government of India, Optra SCAN indigenously designed and developed a 120-slide, high quality scanning device, telepathology software, computer-aided image analysis, cloud based LIMS and remote pathology interpretation services as a complete suite of applications. Affordable and Portable Digital Pathology is the need of the time and Optra SCAN is committed to bringing the second wave of Digital Pathology for the benefit of humankind.”
Mr. Gholap was also the co-founder of BioImagene, an industry leading Digital Pathology company that was acquired by Roche Diagnostics for $100mn in 2010.
End-to-End Digital Pathology
Diverse end-user applications available within Optra SCAN™ suite will be implemented to provide computer-aided diagnosis: 1) TMA Scan - specialized software for the analysis of tissue microarrays (TMAs); 2) Rare event detection algorithms for finding metastasizing cancer cells in blood, and locating metaphase-spreads in amniocentesis and bone-marrow specimens; 3) Image analysis algorithms for quantitative analysis of immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays, including ER, PR, Ki 67, Her-2 Neu expression for breast & prostate cancer; 4) Novel pattern recognition algorithms based on featureless heuristics. Other features such as Optra IMAGE Path™, Optra ASSAY™, CLOUD Path™ and Optra TELE Path™ to store, analyze, manage, conference, share and view high resolution whole slide images.
About Optra SCAN™
A division of Optra Systems, Inc., Optra SCAN™ is the first compact digital pathology system to be designed and developed entirely in India. The Optra SCAN™ System provides a comprehensive, affordable end-to-end digital pathology solution for effective acquisition, viewing, analysis and management of digital slides and associated metadata, serving as a perfect tool for transition from conventional microscopy to digital pathology. Focused on delivering fully integrated digital pathology solutions that maximize quality, efficiency and throughput of its customer’s pathology lab (at minimized cost), paired with an image viewer - Optra SCAN™ facilitates a complete customized enhanced image viewing display.
To learn more, visit Optra SCAN™ today: www.optrascan.com.
Optra Systems, Inc.
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Jennifer Levy
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