CHAMPAIGN, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PhotoniCare, Inc., a company dedicated to revolutionizing healthcare by providing physicians with better diagnostic tools, today announced the company’s TOMi™ Scope was awarded best healthcare product at the 12th Annual Prism Awards in San Francisco. The Prism Awards is an annual international competition that honors the best new optics and photonics products on the market.
Since 2008, SPIE, along with media partner Photonics Media, has presented awards to companies and individuals that are creating products that make a difference, solve problems, and improve life through photonics. The Prism Awards reflect the exponential growth, exciting developments, and rich technical innovations across photonics and photonics-enabled industries.
PhotoniCare took home the top prize in the healthcare category for the TOMi Scope. The 510(k)-cleared TOMi Scope uses an advanced light-based technology to see through the eardrum. For the first time, physicians can view a high-resolution depth image on-screen to directly visualize fluid and fluid density in the middle ear. Middle ear infections affect more than 80% of children and are misdiagnosed up to 50% of the time using the current gold standard, examination via otoscope. In addition, they are the leading cause of hearing loss, surgery and antibiotic use, especially in children. Children can suffer from recurring ear infections for six to 12 months before they are referred to an ENT specialist, and are often prescribed increasingly potent antibiotics during this time. More than one million tube surgeries are performed in the U.S. alone every year. TOMi Scope’s advanced light-based technology has the potential to dramatically alter the way children with ear problems are evaluated and treated.
Present to accept the award included Ryan Shelton, Ph.D., CEO & Co-founder; Stephen Boppart, M.D., Ph.D., CMO and Co-founder; Ryan Nolan, M.Eng., CCRP, VP of Clinical Operations and Co-founder; and Wei Kang, Director of R&D.
“It is such a huge honor to be recognized with this prestigious industry award for best healthcare product in 2020, and we’d like to thank SPIE and Photonics Media for sponsoring this incredible opportunity,” said Shelton. “Our team is working hard to provide better options to millions of patients who suffer from middle ear infections. Following our recent 510(k) clearance from the FDA, we cannot wait to see how the TOMi Scope impacts the standard of care for this incredibly common disease.
This year’s awards covered nine categories including healthcare, security and transportation to name a few. SPIE received over 105 applications from 18 countries for this year’s round of PRISM awards. Finalists were ultimately selected by a panel of international judges that included leaders from both the technology commercialization and funding sectors.
About PhotoniCare
Founded in 2013, PhotoniCare’s mission is to revolutionize healthcare by providing physicians with better diagnostic tools, starting with the TOMi Scope™, the first and only otoscope to provide non-invasive imaging of the middle ear using a novel application of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) to directly visualize and characterize fluid in the middle ear, a necessity for
the diagnosis of middle ear infections. PhotoniCare has developed a patented imaging platform technology that provides growth opportunities beyond otology (study of the ear). Peer-reviewed studies show that the same handheld OCT technology can be used to image other areas, such as the anterior and posterior segments of the eye, the skin, and in the mouth.
For more information visit https://photoni.care/ and follow us on Twitter @PhotoniCare, LinkedIn @PhotoniCare, Facebook @PhotoniCare, and Instagram @PhotoniCare.
