Israel Matzav

Faster, faster please

An Israeli company has developed a new technique using fiber optic cables to scan for potentially malignant skin cancer moles.

"Early detection is the key to battling the disease. With early detection, almost all forms of skin cancer are curable," says Col. (ret.) Yossi Biderman, CEO of Skin Cancer Scanning (SCS), an Israeli company that has developed a breakthrough technology using fiber-optic cables to scan for potentially malignant moles.

Clinical trials at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva in central Israel show the system to be 92 percent effective in detecting certain types of skin cancer at an early stage - a higher rate than that of any apparatus currently available. Now a marketable device called Skinscan 650 is close to being ready, Biderman stated "We assume we will have a working prototype by mid-to-late 2011."

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In most developed countries, it is commonplace for a physician to visually examine suspicious moles, before referring patients for biopsies that usually prove unnecessary and expensive. SCS's technology could make this practice a thing of the past.

Biderman points to the system's user-friendliness. "The doctor simply places the device next to the nevus [benign skin lesion] he wants to check. A light source projects rays onto the scanned lesion, and the body cells absorb part of the rays and reflect the light back - as do all things. That reflection is collected, then turned from optical into digital data for assessment. Our system knows how to absorb the rays emanating from the body and assess in which range of the spectrum the light's rays are coming out and their behavioral patterns."

In July, Georgia-based mBeach Software acquired SCS in a reverse merger move that saw the management of SCS replace mBeach's staff. "The major reason for this move is the [company's] ability to raise funds on the open market in the US. This is an international company that can better focus in the future on developing markets. The Israeli company can now concentrate on research," says Biderman, now mBeach CEO, who brings 34 years of command and managerial experience, 22 of them with the Israel Defense Forces, commanding field units including an elite Golani battalion, and 12 years in executive positions.

Soon after he assumed his new position, mBeach announced a strategy of targeting new international market opportunities, and identified Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as among the fastest-growing health care markets globally, with a population exceeding 270 million and an increasing demand for advanced medical technologies. These countries report a very low rate of early detection, and skin cancer is typically diagnosed at an advanced stage when treatment options are less effective and costlier. The result is high cancer death rates.

"The [Skinscan 650] product is under review for marketing there, and the regulatory process has already begun. They showed real interest. Their problem stems more from metal factories than from the sun. Industrial pollution is a major health issue in Russia," says Biderman.

Read the whole thing.

I put that last part in to get myself some free advertising: I've done reverse mergers. So if you're thinking of doing one and you need a lawyer, please keep me in mind.

As to both the technology and the business, as Glenn Reynolds always says, faster, faster please.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:40 AM