Tulsa company hopes device can ease cancer screenings

A breast-imaging company with manufacturing operations in Tulsa is trying to get more women interested in screening for cancer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 67 percent of women 40 or older had a mammogram in the last two years in 2005.

iVu Imaging Corp. wants to see the percentage of women being screened go up — just not by mammogram only.

Over the last three years, the Dallas-based company has developed a new kind of device that uses ultrasound to detect breast cancer, said Shab Jupiterwala, vice president of international sales and business development in Oklahoma.

The result is a diagnostic process that is less intrusive, more effective and overall more efficient for doctors and technicians, he said.

How it works

The SOFIA (Soft Image Acquisition) device is an exam table with an adjustable dome cavity.

Patients lie face down on the table, placing one breast at a time into the dome, which is filled with a liquid solution.

The dome then rotates, capturing an image every three degrees for a total of 120 images. The entire process takes about three minutes per breast, Jupiterwala said.

Through the inspiration of wives, moms and aunts, iVu developed the device to battle the uncertainty inherent in the mammography procedure, he said.

"Some of the tests are not conclusive,” Jupiterwala said.

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