Manufacturer of Vision Components for Robotic Assembly Lines May Add an Optometry Application

By John Otrompke
     The Imaging Source, a manufacturer of vision components based in Charlotte , North Carolina , may be adding an optometric tool to the list of health care applications in which its products are used.

    While cameras and other equipment from The Imaging Source are used in several medical applications, “the biggest sector in the medical industry that is starting to use commercial cameras is the field of optometry and ophthalmology,” said John W. Berryman, general manager at The Imaging Source.
    Cameras from the Imaging Source, are sometimes purchased by integrators to build home-spun robotic assembly-lines. One such company is Industrial Dynamics, based in Torrence , California , a bottle inspection company.
     “They build their own assembly line from scratch, using a product of ours called a QC camera, rather than just buying a robot from a third party for $150,000,” explained Berryman, who was a physics professor at Florida Atlantic University between 1994 and 2007.

    Inspection companies like Industrial Dynamics use the equipment in automation which inspects blister packs, spectroscopy as well as machine vision. “They have to database every bottle, to make sure it’s filled with pills, and take a picture of the bar code,” explained Berryman, who presented the company’s equipment at the recent AUTOMATE conference in Chicago.

    In May, Berryman said, the company awaits the announcement of a medical abstract describing the beginning of a clinical trial using a 1/3" CCD camera (model DMK 31AG03) from The Imaging Source in an optometric context. The abstract will likely be presented at this year’s meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology ( ARVO) in Fort Lauderdale , Berryman said.

    Other medical applications of the company’s equipment include use in dentistry, where the devices are used by manufacturer Periogen in a device used to look “under the gums,” according to Berryman.

    Another company in Canada uses model number DMK 31BF03-Z2 in conjunction with phosphorescence angiography to examine cardiac tissue for infection, Berryman said. "That model is the only fully digital camera with an intergrated optical zoom lens on the market," he added.

    The Canadian company just started mass production of the product, Berryman said.

Magazine Hits 10,000 Visit Milestone

   Medical Robotics magazine, the print and online commercial magazine, attracted the 10,000th visitor to it's web-site today, April 20, 2011, less than one month after it's initial commercialization with Google Ads.

   Plans for the magazine for 2011 include a second print volume, an expanded Board of Editorial Advisors, and the creation of a subscription-based portal.

   Contributions, inquiries and suggestions are welcome.

(c) 2011 John J. Otrompke, JD

International Trade Fair for Machine Vision to See Debut of Medical Technology Parcours

By John Otrompke


April 28, 2011


The 24th annual International Trade Fair for Machine Vision will see the debut of a special track for health care vision technology, October 8 to 10, in Stuttgart, Germany.


“We do this for the first time, as we recognized an increased demand for this topic, both exhibitor-wise and visitor-wis,e in our yearly survey over the last 2 years,” said Florian Niethammer, VISION Project Manager. “In our annual exhibitor and visitor survey, we asked the exhibitors, ‘Which are the visitor sectors that you want to have at VISION?’ and the medical device sector was the fifth largest group” in terms of demand, Niethammer added.


Possible factors leading to the increased demand include the greater need for quality in the health care sector, as well as the fact that health care industry is more stable and recession-proof than other industries.


“By ‘parcours,’ we want to express that there is not a centralized special stand for the medical technology topic at VISION 2011,” Niethammer explained.


The medical sector came in fifth, behind machine vision, mechanical engineering, the automotive supply industry, and the automotive industry, in terms of demand, he added.


Last year at the conference, 8% of 6,752 visitors said that they were in the medical device industry, compared to 13% in 2009, according to Niethammer. The change amounted to an actual decrease in the number of attendees from the health care sector.


Last year’s show included 323 exhibitors and an exhibition area of around 20,000 square meters.

MEDICAL ROBOTICS MAGAZINE POSTS FIRST FINANCIAL TRANSACTION

   Yesterday, April 12, 2011, Medical Robotics Magazine earned it's first dollar through a Google Ad, sponsored by a Chicago-area hospital.

   The connection was considered apropos because Medical Robotics Magazine, founded in 2007 by John J. Otrompke, was created in the Chicago area. However, in addition to attending conferences which take place in other regions, the magazine is intended as a publication of global interests.

   In 2011, the publisher intends to offer Medical Robotics Magazine in part on a subscription-only basis, offering print issues (at least one in 2011), and access to high-quality content on the web-site, for subscription only.

    Subscriptions are priced at $100 for two years.

    For more information, email John_Otrompke@yahoo.com or phone at 646-730-0179.


   
  

Early Survey of National Claims-Made Database Finds No Paid Claims for Robotic Surgery

by John Otrompke


An early review of a robust claims database maintained by an association of physician insurance companies reveals no paid claims based on robotic surgery, according to spokespersons for the Physicians Insurance Association of America (PIAA).



However, due to the nature of litigation, as well as claims databases (which are based on litigation), caution may be called for in interpreting the positive preliminary results, according to Divya Parikh, MPH, director of research and loss prevention at the PIAA.


Since the ICD-9 codes for billing for medical procedures were amended in 2008 to includes codes 17.41 to 17.49 for robotic surgery procedures, one single claim was made following robotic surgery, but the claim was closed without being paid, explained Kwon Miller, PIAA data analyst. There were no open claims up to the end of 2010, according to Parikh.


The PIAA databasem established in 1985, is considered robust, comprising companies that insure as many as 60% of physicians practicing in the United States, Parikh said. All told, about 260,000 claims are contained within the database.


"It's nice to see this, but it isn't highly unusual, because of the long tail effect wuith insurance; it can take up to four years to close a claim in some jurisdictions, and many times we don't see a claim for five to ten years," Parikh said.


"In addition, we may not be capturing data from solo physicians; the physicians in the database may not even be performing these procedures," she added. The database does not currently incude data from doctors in Physician-Hospital Organizations (PHOs), Parikh said.


"Another problem is that we use the ICD-9 manual, which is used for billing," according to Parikh. For claims made prior to 2008, the database includes claims for procedures such as radical prostatectomy, sacrocolpopexy, and mitral valve repair, which may be performed in a minimally invasive manner. However, the minimally invasive procedures included both robotic and laparscopic procedures prior to 2008, and they were not broken down into the categories, she said.


The database was established in 1985, Miller said. "For each claim, we identify a person's condition, and what the doctor performed, then another field shows the alleged error," she added. Of the 260,000 claims in the database, only about 72,000 resulted in an indemnity payment, Miller said.


Therein lies the original raison d'etre for the database, Parikh said. "Only one third of claims or less result in a payment, which is why the PIAA database exists. This shows why there is an increase in defense costs. Sometimes the numbers shift to even less claims paid, sometimes going down as low as 26%," she explained.

Medical Robotics Magazine is a Magazine!

Medical Robotics Magazine is the world's first and only commercial feature news magazine devoted to all aspect of the medical robotics industry- including robotic surgery, physical therapy robots, hospital orderlies, and other topics related to robotic medicine.




As a feature magazine, Medical Robotics features interviews, business news, conference coverage and editorials, as well as a generous portion of articles written by noteworthy robotics surgeons as well as clinical trials reports.



MR has been on-line since 2007, and first appeared in print in January of 2008 at the annual meeting of MIRA (the Minimally Invasive Robotics Association) in Rome, Italy. Medical Robotics Magazine is copyrighted, features a nascent Board of Editorial Advisors, and is indexed by the U.S. Library of Congress. Now nearing our 10,000th web visitor, Medical Robotics Magazine entered a new active phase in March of 2011.