With this in mind, the two-year OMICRON initiative pulls together a mix of industrial, clinical and research partners tasked with exploring the diagnostic efficacy of OCT at the "previously untried" source wavelength of 1 µm. It is thought that OCT images acquired in this region of the spectrum will offer improved contrast and resolution, helping clinicians to distinguish between healthy and cancerous tissue.
"OCT scanning has the potential of both guiding and reducing the dependence on biopsies...reducing pressure on overloaded pathology departments and improving outcomes from cancer surgery," said Nick Stone, head of biophotonics at Gloucestershire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (one of the OMICRON partners).
What's notable about OMICRON is the multidisciplinary approach. The other partners in the project are Michelson Diagnostics (an OCT start-up), Kamelian (a specialist in III-V photonic components), Tactiq (a medical imaging systems consultancy), Wolfgang Drexler's biomedical imaging group at Cardiff University, and the National Physical Laboratory.
Technology transfer
It's estimated that OCT generates sales in excess of $60 million a year in the ophthalmology market. But according to Jon Holmes, chief executive officer of Michelson Diagnostics, the technology is already transitioning into other clinical settings. "OCT is well-established for use in retinal applications, but commercial applications are now starting to happen in many other areas too," he noted at a conference in the spring (see OCT moves beyond the tipping point on medicalphysicsweb).
Holmes cited the surge in the number of research papers published on OCT - more than 800 in 2006. While over half of these publications discussed ophthalmic applications, other key areas of interest include the use of OCT to study cancer and heart disease, as well as dental and neural applications.
"Areas where the research is being done give some indication of which areas are approaching commercial interest," said Holmes. He also pointed out the large number of patents being filed in OCT - around 90 last year. "Clearly there's a lot of activity. This area is taking off."
As for vendors already active in the OCT arena, there are thought to be 19 companies offering OCT-related products (11 in North America, seven in Europe and one in Japan). What's more, only one third of these are focusing on ophthalmics, with other target applications including vascular, cancer and dental.