FDA approves Hillsborough firm’s ‘GPS’ device for surgeons
Dr. John Iannitti uses the InVision System to place an ablation needle into a liver tumor during a recent clinical trail. (InnerOptic photo)
Related Stories
- Hillsborough med-tech startup InnerOptic receives NIH grant
- Five startups receive grants up to $50,000 each from NC IDEA
- Investors Focus on InnerOptic, Provide Up to $370,000
- InnerOptic Lands CEO, Nears Close on New Financing
- InnerOptic Lands Federal Grant for Further Development of 3D Surgical Device
- Operating Funds: 2 Grants Boost InnerOptic's 3D Surgical Device
- UNC Spinout Inneroptic Tech Opens Up Surgeon's View Inside a Patient
On The Web
Site Search
Get the latest news alerts: Follow LTW at Twitter.
Local Tech Wire
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – Startup InnerOptic’s “GPS” devices for surgeons are headed for the healthcare industry marketplace.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved InnerOptic’s Invision System for marketing in the U.S., the company said Thursday.
InnerOptic has called Invision a GPS, or global positioning system, for surgeons since the device is designed to guide needs and predict its future path based on a patented 3D visualization system.
Invision is designed for needle-based procedures that use ultrasound, including biopsies.
“The InVision System enables physicians to more quickly and accurately guide a needle into a target on an ultrasound image,” said Dr. John Martinie, a surgeon at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. He had used the device in a clinical study.
“All practitioners, from novice to expert, will benefit from its 3D guidance,” Martinie said in a statement issued by InnerOptic. Carolinas Medical Center has been working with InnerOptic on the device.
InVision is designed to enable surgeons to make procedures more accurately, more easily and faster.
Citing a clinical study, InnerOptic said the device improved needle placement accuracy by between 35 percent and 88 percent.
In July, InnerOptic received a $99,462 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health for applications of its visualization technology. Over a two-month period, InnerOptic received two SBIR grants and matching funds from the state of North Carolina that totaled more than $300,000.
InnerOptic, founded in 2003, is commercializing technology developed at UNC-Chapel Hill.
In December 2007, CatoBioVentures agreed to invest as much as $270,000 in InnerOptic and an unidentified angel investor added another $100,000.
Featured
E-mail Preferences
The Skinny
- Mark Cuban to talk VC with RTP entrepreneurs
- The ‘Immernet’ – A coming virtual world for real business
- Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban headlines RTP venture event
- If you’re not a Luddite, don’t miss ‘The Immersive Internet’
- LePhone, LePad demonstrate Lenovo’s focus on China
- Touring Epic Game's HQ: A war-gaming Pentagon
- ‘Inflamed’ Nortel’s retirees fight for, win a delay in benefits loss
- IBM management shuffle sets stage for battle to replace top exec
- Consumers vs. Apple – ‘Antennagate’ or overblown?
- Latest VC investment report - Some good news in stormy climate