Michelson Diagnostics’ new imaging device the VivoSight® OCT scanner is now available to U.S. dermatologists the company reports. The VivoSight® scan enables clinicians to see under the skin surface instantly, providing additional information, which will allow them to better treat patients with non-melanoma skin cancer. Gramercy Park Dermatology in New York City is the first medical practice in the U.S. to offer the VivoSight® scan.
The scanner uses multi-beam optical coherence tomography, which provides images of sub-surface tissues similar to ultrasound but at a far higher resolution, enabling the clinician to see critical details of the epidermis and dermis in real time. In the case of non-melanoma skin cancer, this information can help trained clinicians decide whether to treat a lesion, what treatment to use, and if treatment is working.
PositiveID Corporation (OTCBB: PSID.OB) reported that it is adding the detection of H5N1, or avian flu, to its biological detection capabilities amid signs that a mutant strain of the deadly bird flu virus is spreading overseas. Through its MicroFluidic Systems (MFS) subsidiary, PositiveID has the biological capability to detect virtually any virus, bacteria or toxin in an environmental or clinical environment and is currently completing a test to identify the mutant strain of H5N1. It expects to have the laboratory development completed in the fourth quarter of this year.
Hypertension Diagnostics, Inc. (OTCQB: HDII) reported that revenue for its FY2011 ending June 30, 2011 was $1,389,181 compared to $1,383,669 the previous year. Net income was $406,312 or $.01 per share, compared with a net loss of $989,759 for FY 2010, or $(.02) per share. The Company reported a cash balance on June 30, 2011 of $753,881, a 28% decrease compared with a cash balance of $1,053,648 on June 30, 2010.
IRIS International, Inc. (Nasdaq:IRIS), which produces automated in-vitro diagnostics systems and consumables, says that it is restructuring its Personalized Medicine division by downsizing and consolidating Arista Molecular’s operations into Iris Molecular Diagnostics. The company is also restructuring R&D within the Iris Diagnostics Division to realign its technical core competencies with the new product pipeline in development. The company is discontinuing its non-proprietary testing services including flow cytometry, FISH, and cytology. Fourth quarter 2011 savings of $1.4 million to $1.6 million are expected from reduced expenses and costs associated with this restructuring. The company says that it is maintaining a full year 2011 revenue guidance of $117 – $123 million, representing a 10-15% growth over 2010.
Population Diagnostics, Inc. has appointed one of the world’s preeminent human geneticists Sir Walter Bodmer, Head of the Cancer and Immunogenetics Laboratory in the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford, to its Scientific Advisory Board. The company is applying its discoveries in human genetics to the development of DNA-based diagnostics and personalized medicine tests. –Peter Winter