October 21, 2019

A Cleveland Clinic-backed XR medical visualization startup, MediView XR, Inc., has launched with $4.5 million in funding.

A Cleveland Clinic-backed XR medical visualization startup, MediView XR, Inc., has launched with $4.5 million in funding. The company uses the HoloLens and their custom software to help doctors visualize patient anatomy, and anchor it precisely on their body, giving the doctor, in essence, x-ray specs. The fundamental holographic visualization technology was initially developed at the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic to help surgeons better visualize and plan for the face transplant. Karl West led the team, using a HoloLens to create 3D holographic representations of the donor’s skull and other anatomy to assess and refine their surgical plans. Jeffrey Yanof, PhD, created the software.

Drs. West and Yanof, integrated four overlapping technologies to create a comprehensive AR Surgical Navigation Platform. (1) An anatomic CR/MRI registration, which anchors a patient’s own CT or MRI, so the surgeon can see beneath the skin and identify critical anatomy and risk structures around a cancerous lesion; (2) Preoperative Plan with Inter operative Display lets the physician actually plan their trajectory with the light ray tool targeting the tumor during the procedure; (3) Intraoperative Tool Tracking tracks the surgeon’s tools throughout the procedure, turning them into holographic images; and (4) A Real-Time Holographic Ultrasound Overlay to provide comprehensive and accurate guidance the surgeon is able to see all of the MediView system capabilities synchronized together in real-time 3D as they move around the patient in the surgical suite.

The company’s initial application is transforming percutaneous procedures by harnessing the power of Mixed Reality and Artificial Intelligence to improve acute and chronic patient outcomes. While there are other companies taking different approaches to using AR for real time, anchored, “X-ray vision,” the approach of MediView is unique, because it uses CT scans to register to a patient, but then uses ultrasound to locate and build 3D images of tumors and the organs around them using the spatial computing capabilities of the HoloLens. This has important advantages over the old system, which presented deadly threats to clinicians. The risk of extended radiation exposure can be measured and is well known. One or the events that spurred Dr. West to create MediView was the death of his friend Dr. Roy Greenberg, who succumbed to cancer very possibly as a direct result of his work as a surgeon […read more]