Tulsa company hopes device can ease cancer screenings
Company hopes device can ease cancer screenings
Dusty Somers, Business Writer
Comments 
2
Published: June 16, 2009
A breast-imaging company with manufacturing operations in Tulsa is trying to get more women interested in screening for cancer.
Multimedia
More Info
Who needs it?
The National Cancer Institute recommends that women in their 40s and older should be screened for breast cancer every one to two years with mammography.
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.
"That creates a level of anxiety that women continue to go through.”
A clear view
Mammograms are often painful examinations that require a compression technique that is neither comfortable nor private, he said.
Because of the invasive nature of mammograms, many women don’t get them as often as they should, and that doesn’t bode well for prevention, Jupiterwala said.
"If you can see cancer early — which is the point of screening — you can cure it,” he said.
iVu also claims the SOFIA is more effective at detecting cancer because it provides a comprehensive 360-degree view of the breast tissue for the radiologist.
Helping more patients
A three-dimensional image reconstruction is also available, something that mammograms are unable to provide, Jupiterwala said.
"These are tools that have never been made available to the radiologist,” he said.
The SOFIA is an automated process, unlike a t e c h n i c i a n - d e p e n d e n t mammogram, and that allows for consistency and repeatability, Jupiterwala said.
The minimal time that the procedure requires — about 10 minutes total — also will allow clinics and hospitals to see two to three times more patients, and because the images are captured digitally, a radiologist doesn’t even have to be onsite.
A technician can simply facilitate the exam, and send the results to a remote radiologist for diagnosis if necessary.
The device was FDA-approved last summer, and iVu has been selling it for about five months, Jupiterwala said.
Not available here
The procedure is not currently available in Oklahoma, but there are clinics in the Dallas area that have the machine, he said.
Because the FDA categorizes SOFIA as a diagnostic device and not a screening device, a doctor’s prescription is required for the procedure.
The cost ranges from $250 to $300, but should be covered by most insurance providers except for the co-pay, Jupiterwala said.
iVu Imaging Corp. vice president of international sales and business development in Oklahoma
Related Topics:
Health and Fitness, Medicine, Cancer, Breast Cancer, Mammography, Women's Health, Medical Imaging and Diagnostics
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).
MOST WOMEN postpone mammogram because of the humiliation and the discomfort of compression. GET THIS NEWEST MACHINE, OKC!! Please!!! If hospital Administrators were females that had experienced the smashogram machine, they be issuing a purchase order for the equipment today. Believe it!