Ultrasound is one of the safest diagnostic technologies used in medicine. But current ultrasound technology is severely limited: it is expensive, bulky and very complex to handle. Ultrasound devices started as card-based devices in the 1950 and the first hand-carried versions were launched in the 2000s. Since 2015, there have been attempts to create a pocket-size point-of-care (POC) version. So far, the commercial POC versions do not measure up as they sacrifice image quality for low cost and size. But this is an important challenge to overcome as POC ultrasound can save lives.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes ultrasound as a core technology for diagnostics and remains one of the safest and least expensive, useful in practically all medical specialties. POC ultrasonography is an evolving diagnostic modality that could be used by health care professionals from nearly all specialties to make rapid and early diagnoses.
This technology has the capacity to revolutionize patient care and improve procedural efficacy, decrease complications, and limit pain and suffering. This highly valuable modality will quickly identify abnormalities that may not be revealed by traditional physical examinations. Prognosis improvement in Primary Care attention would save over €3.5 billion in the EU healthcare systems and enhance the wellbeing of 185 million people .
Somax Systems S.L. is a company born with the aim of designing and commercializing high performance hand-held ultrasound image systems, which are based on a new hardware architecture, specially designed for low cost and low power systems, and a new programming paradigm that allows using almost any mobile device as a high-performance parallel computing platform.
Somax Systems is focused in the development and commercialization of high-performance ultrasound imaging devices. We are almost ready to launch the smallest and versatile scanner in the world, which must surely be bound to become a daily essential work tool for health professionals, as today it is the stethoscope or the thermometer.
The work undertaken during the Phase 1 project allowed us to examine our technological product and our business assumptions. Our strategic vision has evolved in several ways:
1. Objectives: We have confirmed Spain as our suitable landing market and that there are important market opportunities in the EU and US assuming we can afford the certifications and validations. We have also determined to focus on nine procedures.
2. Concept and Approach: The study has confirmed that we have a large market and that we can enter it with the planned adjustments. The key is to get the regulatory approvals in the different regions, which we plan to subcontract some approved companies for as listed above. However, this involves a high financial contributions, which we will seek Phase 2 and investor funding for.
3. Impact: The introduction of Echophone can change the way of general practitioners diagnose since Somax Technology will make possible to really “see” - in real time - patient’s body, revealing the structure and function of organs at Primary Care units. Echophone enables ultrasound imaging to be executed at the bedside and thereby allowing medical specialists to make timely diagnoses and perform ultrasound-guided procedures, as well as to perform reliable diagnoses at the lower levels of the health systems that today are beyond their scope. Therefore, the probability of right prognosis in primary care practice will increase significantly in comparison with current praxis in some cases.
4. Support Needed: We will be applying for Phase 2 funding to execute the work we identified in the feasibility study in 2020. We are also really happy with the support we got from our coach and we hope we can collaborate with him in the future.
