ASX medical disruptors pioneering new diagnostics and cutting-edge procedures

New technologies are transforming healthcare and challenging traditional medical practices
Optiscan’s technology is about bringing pathologists and surgeons closer together in real time for faster diagnosis
Singular Health’s 3Dicom product translates and converts MRIs, CT and PET scans into 3D or virtual reality and extended reality (VR-XR) models

The medical sector is rapidly evolving as new technologies and scientific breakthroughs challenge conventional practices.

Digitisation and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are not only working to improve diagnostics but also speed up drug discovery.

Robotic-assisted surgeries, advances in storage and transfer of medical records and images are further shaking up the healthcare landscape.

Optiscan (ASX:OIL) CEO and managing director Dr Camile Farah – himself a trained pathologist – told Stockhead a great example of disruption in medicine was in the field of radiology.

“Twenty years ago if you went to get an X-ray they would print it on film and it would be couriered to the doctor or you would take it to the doctor along with a printed report,” he said.

“Now radiology is all digital and the radiologist can be anywhere in the world reporting on an image sent over the cloud.”

The ASX health care landscape has plenty of medical disruptors in the field of diagnostics and procedures. Here are some standouts.

Optiscan (ASX:OIL)

Optiscan is digitising traditional analogue pathology processes, developing and commercialising confocal endomicroscopy technology to bring surgeons and pathologists closer for faster diagnosis, reducing the need for follow-up surgeries, particularly for conditions such as cancer.

Farah said that traditional pathology involves biopsies sent to labs, processed in a time-consuming way that takes about a week for results.

Optiscan’s digital technology cuts this time drastically by enabling real-time collaboration between the surgeon and pathologist during the procedure.

Using OIL’s digital microscope, a surgeon can communicate with the pathologist, who examines live images. The pathologist can advise whether more tissue for example needs removal or if it’s clear of cancer cells, providing immediate feedback.

Farah highlights the challenges disruptive technologies face in medicine, emphasising that they must not only work but also save time and money.

“We want to allow the pathologist to do the work in a different way and cut out all the analogue, processing time and equipment currently needed by a lab to also save them money,” he said.

In July, OIL received ethical clearance from the Royal Melbourne Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee to undertake an in vivo clinical study for assessment of cancer margins in patients presenting for surgical treatment of breast cancer.

The company has also signed an agreement with the Mayo Clinic to develop an endomicroscopy system for robotic surgery.

Imricor Medical Systems (ASX:IMR)

IMR has developed the world’s only MRI-compatible devices for cardiac ablations, a procedure where a catheter is guided into the heart to selectively destroy cells that cause electrical disturbances leading to arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats).

The procedure is currently performed under X-ray guidance, known as X-ray fluoroscopy. However, while effective for visualising hard structures like ribs and the catheter, X-ray struggles to show soft tissue such as the heart, making it challenging for physicians to confirm the ablation’s completeness in the area causing the arrhythmia.

As a result, long-term success rates can be as low as 50%, often requiring patients to undergo multiple procedures to achieve a permanent solution. Additionally, X-ray fluoroscopy exposes both patients and medical staff to radiation during the process.

IMR is advancing the long-held goal of clinicians to perform cardiac ablations using the superior imaging capabilities of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The company is currently undertaking its Vision-MR Ablation of Atrial Flutter (VISABL-AFL) pivotal clinical trial supporting US FDA approval of its products, which it hopes to achieve in 2025.

In Europe, where the company has already received regulatory approval for atrial flutter, it’s about to start the VISABL-VT clinical trial for its second indication, ventricular tachycardia (VT).

Vice president of corporate strategy Nick Corkill told Stockhead that technology advancements can be evolutionary or revolutionary.

“We are bringing an entire new platform of technologies, unique in the world for their ability to work inside of an MRI.”

“We think this will revolutionise the treatment of irregular heart beats by allowing doctors to see, in real time, exactly where in the heart their tools are at all times.”

Singular Health Group Ltd (ASX:SHG)

SHG listed on the ASX in February 2021 with its medical software product 3Dicom translating and converting MRIs, CT and PET scans into 3D or virtual reality and extended reality (VR-XR) models.

The company was founded in 2017 by Perth gynaecological oncologist Dr Jason Tan who wanted to better understand a patient’s cancer which had spread from the ovaries up the aorta and oesophagus.

Co-founder and CEO Denning Chong told Stockhead Tan worked with developers to build technology to view 3D or virtual reality models from two-dimensional medical images for the difficult case to plan an optimal surgical approach.

“He was successful in undertaking the surgery and the patient is still alive today so that’s how the technology was born,” said Chong.

“Doctors can put on their 3D goggles and can actually see inside the body – where every gap, where every vein or artery is – which helps with surgical preparation.”

SHG has received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2022 for 3Dicom as a Class II Software-as-a-Medical Device (SaMD).

Where the company sees real commercial opportunity is viewing, sending and storing the images for patients and hospitals.

The company said there was significant demand from managed service organisations (MSOs), which manage hospitals in the US, for such technology to provide better patient care and reduce their costs.

Chong said that in the US in particular, patients often receive their images on CDs, but many doctors no longer have CD readers.

“For patients with chronic illnesses, this causes delays in diagnosis, extra costs, and difficulty accessing their own images.”

Chong added that SHG has an AI component which it is building out and actively pursuing with MSOs to provide earlier, better and more efficient discoveries and treatment plans.

Lumos Diagnostics (ASX:LDX)

LDX specialises in rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tests. The company has achieved FDA-clearance for its FebriDx product – a rapid POC test that uses a fingerstick blood sample to aid in the differentiation between acute bacterial and viral respiratory infections.

FebriDx qualitatively detects elevated levels of two proteins produced by the body’s immune response, which help differentiate between bacterial (C-reactive protein [CRP]) and non-bacterial (Myxovirus resistance protein A [MxA]) infections in a fingerstick blood sample. The test provides results in about 10 minutes.

LDX said acute respiratory infections – producing symptoms such as cough, sore throat, runny nose and congestion – were the most common reason patients seek care worldwide.

The majority of acute respiratory infections are caused by viruses and don’t require antibiotics, yet antibiotics are prescribed in up to 50% of cases.

LDX said inappropriate prescription of antibiotics can have dire consequences – causing both adverse health events and contributing to the pressing global emergency of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), too, often reported as the ‘next pandemic’.

FebriDx now has regulatory approval for use in various countries including the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal and Belgium.

The company is also developing a new foetal fibronectin (fFN) test to help indicate a pregnant woman’s risk of delivering prematurely for Nasdaq-listed Hologic.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Optiscan, Imricor, Singular Health and Lumos Diagnostics are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.