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Based on its recent analysis of image guided therapy markets, Frost & Sullivan presents Veran Medical Technologies, Inc. with the 2009 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Technology Innovation of the Year in recognition of its pioneering development of a novel image guided medical therapy delivery system, known as the IG4, which enables accurate and efficient targeting of very small lesions in the lungs. The technology is unique, as it is based on a 4-D registration principle. Unlike traditional navigation technologies, by encouraging the movement of fiducials, the IG4 technology helps solve the problem of maintaining accurate localization for moving organs.
Current lung cancer detection protocols require patients with small lesions to come back repeatedly for computed tomography (CT) scans to monitor their growth. Multiple scans translate to increased costs and increased radiation exposure. In addition, physicians do not possess the means to integrate multiple modality information such as PET-CT, MR-CT, or contrasted enhanced images for real-time navigation in the CT suite.
"In this context, image guided technologies are proving their usefulness especially in fields such as neurosurgery and functional endoscopic surgery," says Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Pramodh Ishwarakrishnan. "With its 4D registration features, Veran Medical's IG4 system represents a complete solution for the early diagnosis of lung cancer."
The time-saving IG4 Plug-n-Play Delivery System uses real-time electromagnetic localization to track organ motion and deliver diagnostic biopsy needles and therapy devices. The advantage of the IG4 is that it requires no user interaction to complete registration. The system incorporates advanced auto-segmentation and proprietary design for patient tracking, which serves to eliminate the possibility of user error being introduced into the system through the process of manually selecting registration fiducials both in the image and on the patient.
In fact, Veran Medical has a wide array of tracking devices from universal adapters that can be applied to any vendor's biopsy and ablation needles to its own proprietary tip-tracked biopsy needles that have localization sensors integrated at the tip of the device. Tip-tracked needles help enable very fine gauge needles to be accurately navigated.
Further, the IG4 enables physicians to navigate needles without the added radiation exposure that physicians and hospital staff are subjected to by using CT Fluoro. Another major benefit is that it is not limited to navigating in a single plane or on lower quality images that CT Fluoro requires. The IG4 allows a physician to select any approach to target the lesion with its global positioning system-like accuracy for high-quality images.
What differentiates Veran's 4-D registration principle from those of its competitors is that it includes an automatic 3-D spatial registration between the electromagnetic field generator and the real-time CT scans of the patient anatomy, and a temporal registration capable of determining when the patient is at the same point in the respiratory cycle as when the CT scan was acquired. While competing technologies implement traditional rigid 3-D registration algorithms, they fail to take into account the inaccuracies caused by patient motion.
"With its multitude of benefits, Veran's technology has the potential to become the standard of care for soft tissue applications," notes Ishwarakrishnan. "Its ability to track the patient's real-time respiratory motion and navigate the tip of needles to very small lesions while reducing time of the procedure represents an optimal solution. Moreover, the system is capable of integrating multimodality image information and real-time navigation, which in turn increases the strength of individual imaging modalities. Also, IG4's single shot delivery of contrast agents and subsequent navigation to it is another valuable capability."
The Veran IG4 Navigation System has been granted 510 K clearances and the company is expecting to begin commercialization in international markets. It closed its first round of $4.75 million in venture capital and private financing in April 2008 and secured its first U.S. Patent 7,398,116 in July 2008.
Clearly on a path to positive growth, Veran Medical's technology could help reduce procedure times and increase accuracy by tracking lung cancer patient's real-time respiratory motion, thus enabling physicians to treat them more effectively. In recognition, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present Veran Medical with the 2009 Award for Technology Innovation of the Year Award in the image guided therapy markets.
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has carried out new research, which has resulted in innovations that have or are expected to bring significant contributions to the industry in terms of adoption, change, and competitive posture. This award recognizes the quality and depth of a company's research and development program as well as the vision and risk-taking that enabled it to undertake such an endeavor.
Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.
About Veran Medical Technologies, Inc.
Veran Medical Technologies (veranmedical.com) is a privately held image guided medical device company focused on developing the next standard of care for minimally invasive delivery of interventional oncology therapies. Veran provides proprietary 4D registration capability for precise targeting of lesions via its FDA cleared platform. The Veran platform aims to reduce procedure times, reduce radiation exposure for the clinical staff, and increase targeting accuracy enabling physicians to cost effectively treat patients with reduced co-morbidity risk. Veran Medical Technologies is headquartered in St. Louis, MO.
About Frost & Sullivan
Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages over 45 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from 31 offices on six continents.
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jake.wengroff[.]frost.com 
