Α small team of researchers based in the hills outside Jerusalem is designing technology that could potentially save thousands of women’s lives per year. The company behind this, Illumigyn, is using advanced imaging technology originating in the Israeli military to develop medical hardware that gynecologists could use to better identify and treat cervical cancer and other diseases in routine inspections for women.

“The product is ready, and this is a game-changing experience for the patient, for the quality of service, and for the ability to treat women, not only at the point of injury, or problem, but also through their entire life,” said Ran Poliakine, the serial entrepreneur funding the project.​

llumigyn’s Gynescope looks for diseases while they are still developing, using different light wavelengths. The company took existing technologies, including machine vision systems, and created a sophisticated optical camera that fits inside the handle of a standard speculum used by gynecologists. The video is high-definition, down to the microscopic level, with a camera that cycles through different wavelengths of light. At each wavelength it scans for different irregular patterns. For example, cervical cancer could be in its very early stages just below the surface tissue and invisible to the eye, but visible with infrared light, Poliakine said. Women will visit the gynecologist and go through the checkups in the same way they do now.

They plan to build an image database that will be compared to what gynecologists are seeing in real-time, and suggest to them where there might be a problem. They will be able to compare the images from their patient against an image bank of thousands of other images. The process will be based on existing pattern recognition technology.

“The image in the visible light is helping the doctor to see what’s going on, but really the information is going against a database, to say, ‘Hey, maybe you have a suspicious area here, or maybe you want to take a biopsy from here and not from here,’” Poliakine said.

Poliakine said also that there will be four main benefits for women’s health. Gynecologists will be able to see while they work in an entirely new way. They will build an archive of images for each woman, so they can compare her current images to those from her previous visits. They will be able to suggest when there could be a problem, and they will be able to guide physicians through procedures.

Today, for instance, a gynecologist who needs to take a biopsy to test for cervical cancer would take several tissue samples. Illumigyn believes its technology will be able to tell doctors from where exactly they should take a sample, and the doctor will be able to both see clearly and perform the biopsy, which was not possible before. They will be able to advise doctors on procedures in real time.

They hope to provide the cameras to clinics for free. One possible business model would have them sell clinics only the custom sterile speculums for use with their equipment. Poliakine calls it the “Gillette” business model, similar to a razor that a customer buys cheaply, but needs to buy blades for long-term. The speculums are already an expense for the clinics so the equipment would come at no additional cost. They are also considering making information from the database available to researchers for a small fee.​

See the full article here: http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-medical-company-hopes-to-save-thousands-of-womens-lives-per-year/​