Lung cancer is the most common cancer globally with more than 1.82 million new cases each year and 1.59 million deaths.

If diagnosed in Stage 1, the survival rate goes up 50 percent versus just 1 percent if diagnosed as late as in Stage 4. Early diagnosis dramatically improves survival rate, but is difficult due to the small size of the tumor nodules.

The current process is to introduce large bronchoscopes into the airways to image and collect tissue samples. Biopsies are obtained from the lung periphery blindly with high risk of misdiagnosis. The bronchoscopes are uncomfortable for the patients and they are also exposed to radiation. Training is difficult for doctors are they too, like the patients, are exposed to radiation.

Our Solution: EndoRoTM uses Essential Medical guidance to automatically navigate the biopsy catheter to lung periphery. This robotic tool makes it easier and safer than existing endovascular robots which are operated manually. A working protoype of EndoRoTM v1.0 was tested on a bench model and a provisional patent was filed in July 2018.

Medical robotic surgery is predicted to reach $16.4 billion in 2023 at a CAGR of 21 percent.