So, the inspiration behind the MicroCam technology was to reduce the equipment required to generate an endoscopic image by 90 percent and to drive down acquisition costs by up to 80 percent to promote the expansion of minimally-invasive procedures to the 3.1 billion middle class workers that are emerging in these new economies.

In order to expand access and tap into these emerging economies, in a meaningful way, we have to drive down the cost of the equipment. This also fundamentally improves the economics and economies of scale of Endoscopy right here in our existing markets.


DOTmed News: When a hospital administrator is deciding what endoscopic imaging system to purchase, why should they consider your system?

LG: In the face of the Affordable Care Act and the aging population, which is ushering in much more cost containment, we can deliver a couple of opportunities to the existing marketplace. We can provide endoscopic imaging systems that eliminate 90 percent of the equipment that is required to create an endoscopic image.

We have been able to eliminate cart-based systems because we have created a camera that can plug directly into the monitor. By virtue of its consolidation of equipment, we can reduce the cost factors by upwards of 80 percent and we can get these capital equipment purchases off the balance sheets of these hospitals and simplify the P&L considerations providers and payers have to make in delivering MIS procedures.

Regrettably, current endoscopy systems only last two to three years because of the amount of wear-and-tear and also because there are now more antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria and the detergents used to sterilize the devices have become far more corrosive.

These hospitals who, historically, have had to buy endoscopic imaging systems every three to four years are now buying them every two to three years and they are paying over $100,000 per system. Having recently emerged from the global recession, these hospitals really had to manage their capital equipment budgets.

So, many of them are staring down the gun barrel of huge financial expenditures to acquire capital equipment. With the MicroCam, we have also developed the 'visualization as a service' (VAAS) service model, where we can actually provide these hospitals this equipment for a cost per use at about $51, which fits very nicely into their reimbursement model.

Now we can make endoscopy a patient expense and we can eliminate the acquisition costs of these systems, which can make the economies of endoscopy much more effective and efficient.

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