Fovia and Imperial College London Announce Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery Collaboration

PALO ALTO, CA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - Apr 22, 2014) - Fovia Medical, Inc., a world leader in volume rendering technology, and Imperial College London, a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in biomedical research that is consistently rated among the world's best universities, today announced a collaboration to bring High Definition Volume Rendering® to minimally invasive robotic surgery.

The Hamlyn Centre at Imperial College London is at the forefront of research and technological innovation in robot-assisted surgery. The Centre is working with Fovia on leading-edge projects that combine the unparalleled performance, quality and accuracy of High Definition Volume Rendering with advanced robotic surgery technologies.

A premier international research and teaching facility for surgical robotics, the Hamlyn Centre aims to transform conventional minimally invasive surgery by improving the consistency, accuracy and safety of surgical robots, and through the development of new paradigms for human-robot interaction. To this end, the Centre is creating the next generation of miniaturized mechatronic devices with integrated imaging and sensing, while investigating new techniques for providing synergistic control between the surgeon and robot.

Fovia's HDVR® provides a virtual roadmap for robotic surgical teams by allowing the presentation of stereo images in real-time during both the planning and interventional phases of robot-assisted surgery. The highly flexible HDVR software enables full customization of the surgeon's experience, and provides invaluable coherence between preoperative scans of a patient and views of the operative field during the procedure. HDVR greatly enhances surgical guidance by using volumetric data in addition to polygonal models of anatomical structures, allowing for greater detail, precision and accuracy. Fovia's on-the-fly, Multiple Phase Opacity Transfer Function Editor, Advanced Segmentation and Tissue Specific Lighting Controls provide maximum flexibility for faithful representation and manipulation of the desired anatomical targets.

The Hamlyn Centre's integration of High Definition Volume Rendering into its robot-assisted surgical guidance platform enables unprecedented visualization quality and promises to improve patient outcomes in minimally invasive surgical procedures. This unique collaboration bridges the gap between two influential technologies: robotic surgery and tomographic imaging.

Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, Director of the Hamlyn Centre, stated: "One of the Hamlyn Centre's core missions is to develop cutting-edge, disruptive technologies and blue-sky ideas. By collaborating with leading companies such as Fovia, we hope to develop such technologies that will ultimately result in tremendous patient benefit with global impact."

Ken Fineman, Chief Executive Officer of Fovia, stated: "Fovia is excited about bringing High Definition Volume Rendering to the rapidly evolving field of minimally invasive robotic surgery. We are enthusiastic about working with the creative and innovative researchers at the Hamlyn Centre to help combine two complementary and rapidly expanding disciplines: advanced visualization and minimally invasive robotic surgery."

About Fovia, Inc.
Fovia is the developer of High Definition Volume Rendering®, a CPU-based, advanced visualization platform that allows OEMs in a variety of fields to deliver unparalleled quality, performance and scalability to their customers. Fovia's flexible, innovative HDVR® platform overcomes the inherent limitations of other imaging technologies, and enables local, enterprise-wide and remote volumetric rendering with off-the-shelf computers. HDVR delivers high fidelity 2D, 3D and 4D real-time rendering anytime, anywhere. By natively integrating High Definition Volume Rendering, OEMs can control their own proprietary product workflows. Fovia's product suite includes HDVR® Vision (advanced visualization application), HDVR® Web (zero footprint HTML5 viewer), HDVR® Mobile (high resolution 3D for mobile devices), HDVR® Stereo (immersive virtual reality environment), HDVR® Print (high fidelity color 3D printing), and HDVR® SDK (native integration toolkit).

For additional information and to learn more about commercial, academic or research licensing, visit www.fovia.com.

About The Hamlyn Centre at Imperial College London
The Hamlyn Centre at Imperial College London was established for developing safe, effective and accessible imaging, sensing and robotics technologies that can reshape the future of healthcare for both developing and developed countries. Focusing on technological innovation but with a strong emphasis on clinical translation and direct patient benefit with a global impact, the Centre is at the forefront of research in imaging, sensing and robotics for addressing global health challenges associated with demographic, environmental, social and economic changes.

The Hamlyn Centre is a champion for technological innovation and clinical adoption of robotic platforms for minimally invasive surgery. The da Vinci surgical robot is used extensively for radical prostatectomy, partial nephrectomy and transoral otolaryngology procedures. In 2003, St Mary's Hospital carried out the UK's first Totally Endoscopic Robotic Coronary Artery Bypass (TECAB). Research in surgical robotics has an established track record at Imperial College, and a number of research and commercial surgical robot platforms has been developed over the years. These include PROBOT (for prostatectomy), ACROBOT (for orthopaedic surgery) lead by Professor Brian Davies, and most recently the i-Snake® robot lead by Professor Guang-Zhong Yang and Professor Ara Darzi. In addition to its core research activities, the Hamlyn Centre offers comprehensive PhD and MRes programmes for researchers with a strong technical or clinical background.

The Hamlyn Centre is part of the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI), which is working to improve the health of people and reduce health inequalities in developed and developing countries. It aims to overcome global health challenges by harnessing Imperial's interdisciplinary research strengths and its expertise in safe, effective and accessible technologies.

For additional information, visit http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/roboticsurgery.