Aging increases the risk of GI disorders such as CRC, inflammatory bowel disease, and appendicitis. NIH statistic shows that 60 to 70 million people are affected by digestive diseases. Increasing global geriatric population base is expected to further worsen this situation over the coming years. Annually, diseases of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract account for more than 30 million office visits and more than 10 million GI endoscopic procedures in the United States alone for the examinations of digestive tract including the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon, and rectum. Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) endoscopes are still utilized as the main stream with close to $10 billon market needs and near double digit growth rate for performing both diagnosis and therapeutic clinic operations. Unfortunately, existing video based endoscopes can only provide 2D images for visual inspection purpose only, it cannot provide 3D quantitative information on volume and area and location of the disease, as well as the relative position of diagnostic and therapeutic equipment. To address this problem, Xyken together with its collaborator proposes to develop a novel imaging system to provide 2D/3D videoing of the GI anatomical structure. The proposed software system will have the following clinic impact and significance: ? Greatly facilitating the diagnosis, planning, and treatment process through quantitative assessment, accurate depth perception and safer navigation ? Providing more effective clinical training method for residents/doctors through in-vivo 3D digital GI tract model ? Potentially replacing CT based image guided surgery ? eliminating radiation and registration caused errors Published research reports find that, driven by the increasing number of the chronically ill population and aging, the global endoscopy equipment market is expected to reach USD 33.6 Billion by 2020 from USD 23.8 Billion in 2015, at a CAGR of 6.1%. With the aging population and advancement of the emerging economies, the global demand is expected to grow with an increased rate. The commercialization potential and economic impact of the proposed system is thus significant.
The technology developed under this SBIR project will provide great benefit to GI patients, especially the increasing aging population, by providing quantitative capability for existing MIS methods for GI tract disease diagnosis and prevention surgery. With the extended capability over current endoscopes, the proposed system is expected to have a reasonably large market share of this 10 billion dollar industry. Other medical areas benefitting from this research include bronchoscopy, enteroscopy, cystoscopy, laparoscopy, and capsule endoscope. Non-medical fields to benefit this technology include commercial perimeter surveillance, and water and gas pipe inspection - another multi-billion market.
