Digital mammography isn’t affordable or accessible in all parts of the globe.
John Rowlands hopes his new start-up company can change the outlook, saving thousands of lives in the process.
Rowlands, a founding scientific director at the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute, is one of the driving forces behind XLV Diagnostics Inc., a company that hopes to capture a hefty portion of the $1 billion global digital mammography market.
Should their patented X-ray light valve technology prove itself, Rowlands said they should be able to produce an imaging machine that costs significantly less than those already on the market, without sacrificing an ounce of quality.
"The big advantage of this new approach to digital mammography is that the system is a higher image quality, with a lower cost, making it much more available in clinics and hospitals worldwide," Rowlands said. "The cost reduction possible by the use of the XLV technology is to about one-third what it currently is. So this will translate, we hope, to the end user, a cost reduction of the whole system to about half what it currently is."
The prototype builds on large area flat panel technology that’s being used at present in hospitals around the world.
Rowlands added about five researchers will be employed taking the concept from prototype to market-ready, but there are no guarantees the manufacturing will eventually be done in Thunder Bay.
The eventual plan is to expand the technology for use in several other medical imaging techniques, including chest X-ray, bone X-ray and general X-ray.
XLV Diagnostics, which is supported by TBRRI, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and MaRS Innovation, plans to either license the product to manufacturers or build it themselves for sale directly to hospitals and other end users.
Michael Power, TBRRI’s chief executive officer, said this is exactly what he and the organization’s other founders envisioned when they sat down to discuss its creation.
He added the arrival of XLV Diagnostics shows the institute’s viability in the market, and the importance the city now has in the research community.
Power wants to see the benefits span the globe, but also impact close to home.
"At the end of the day we want our inventions … to impact patient care here and around the globe." Power said. "And if you’re impacting patient care, you’re arguably producing products that people want to buy and therefore generating jobs.
"And our objective is to not only create jobs in Toronto or in the Netherlands, New York or California, but ultimately to see as many of those jobs created here in Thunder Bay."
