Ryan Shelton - PhotoniCare, Private Partnering Interview at LSI USA ‘23

Transcription

Hi, my name is Ryan Shelton. I'm the CEO and co founder of PhotoniCare. PhotoniCare has developed a handheld imaging tool called the out of sight middle ear scope, we use light to see through tissue. So our first product here looks through the eardrum visualizes the middle ear directly to give better diagnoses around middle ear diseases. You know, our primary customers are pediatrics, emt, family medicine. Today, they're using an otoscope, which is basically a magnifying glass and a Pin Light. In order to diagnose disease in the middle ear, like ear infections, most common reason for surgeries antibiotic use, and office visits and children. They have a 50% misdiagnosis rate with that tool, it's kind of unusual to hear that high of a misdiagnosis in health care. But that's where you know, the 150 year old tool is today. We still provide that surface view there used to but we look through the eardrum as well. And we can visualize what's there. So we've published 91% sensitivity 90% specificity for determining fluid through the eardrum, and that helps them with their decisions around the antibiotics or tube surgery, no longer than the current tool, the otoscope. Basically, they'll take it off. And then as they're talking to the patient, they'll approach and they'll do the imaging. And basically they put one button on the back, they do their imaging. There you can see the eardrum that on the right is the eardrum in depth. And we can see that there's nothing behind the eardrum, it's black. So really, that's all they need. And then they can go through and review it if they want, and save it to the EMR or send it to wherever they need to send it. So very fast. Some of the things that make our device unique, we did a lot of work around reimbursement going out and getting our own codes. So the device can be built. One of the challenges with otoscopes, the current gold standard, they can't be built. So there's no way to, you know, generate any revenue off of them, they don't get paid. So we you know, did the work on that to be able to get this device to be paid by insurance. So it provides a nice kind of ROI to the customer in addition to improving patient care. We're here raising money. We're early commercial Stage Company, and really looking at scaling our commercial efforts this year. So we're looking to raise a series B rounds. And you know, we've got about 60 devices in the field right now and looking to get up around 200 or so by the end of the year. So I've been coming to this conference since the beginning basically. And you know, Scott's done a great job with putting this conference on. It's always got a nice array of, you know, potential investors, potential partners. And it's a great meeting that I keep coming back to you.