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March 8, 2004 - Instrument Technology, Inc. (ITI) is pleased to announce that the magazine Business Briefing: Global Healthcare 2002 published an article by Phil Samson, ITI Medical Product Sales Manager, entitled, " Enabling the Doctor-Inventor Role in Medical Instrument Design." The article stresses the importance of the Physician in developing new medical technology. The importance of the "Doctor Inventor" is greatly underestimated. Mr. Samson believes that, "... inventing is just a natural extension of the art of medicine and the doctor's role as healer." The doctor dedicated to healing and alleviating suffering is likely to seek all options to accomplish this goal.
Inventing new medical instruments, or creating a procedure, is a natural progression in this process; no-one is closer to the needs of patients than the physician treating them. The field of endoscopy provides a particularly strong example of this in action. Endoscope designs are becoming increasingly more sophisticated as they are relied on to do more and more. Scopes "see" more than ever before and are used to illuminate, insufflate, intubate, accommodate forceps, snares, graspers and do so in increasingly smaller sizes that reach previously inaccessible areas for such instruments. The "Doctor Inventor" plays a significant role in developing the necessary advances to accomplish these tasks. Economies of Scale by the largest manufacturers often dictate the nature of instrument advances that are researched. If the market is not deemed sufficiently large enough to compete for resources in a big company, then research or manufacturing is not undertaken. It is here that Instrument Technology has an advantage over its larger competitors. ITI realizes that each application presents unique needs and challenges. Working closely with the "Doctor Inventor", ITI has developed an extensive line of products. Often, only one or two pieces of some designs and thousands of others are produced. Physician feedback and "Doctor Inventor" partnerships allow products to be designed or "tweaked" by designers sensitive to the needs of the healer.
This "application specific" approach forms the basis for ITI's approach to medical instrument development and manufacturing. This process is best shown in the following examples:
• Dr. Adriano Mehl, an emergency medicine doctor in Brazil, saw the need for an emergency intubation system that would limit the damage that was often caused to a patient's vocal chords. He designed a system utilizing an anatomically precise blade coupled with an auxiliary fiberscope and formed a company to co-ordinate manufacturing and marketing of his invention. ITI helped develop Dr. Mehl's fiberscope design and manufactured his validation prototype. Based on testing, further refinements are being contemplated. ITI hopes to eventually assist in bringing this product to market.
• Endius, Inc. developed its ATAVI(tm) system of technologies utilizing instrumentation and visualization systems. The main component of the visualization system is a spine scope with an integrated camera head. ITI aided in the refinement of the design and construction of this head.
Instrument Technology views itself as a prime partner in the research, development and manufacture of new medical devices utilizing visualization technology. It is the value of the product, not the "economies of scale" that dictates the choice of partners. ITI offers full product development services including design completion, validation, life cycle testing, prototyping pre-production and manufacturing of small quantities or large volume runs.
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