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.