Backed by the fear of transmitting infections, particularly blood-borne pathogens, among patients, disposable medical equipment has been widely utilized by health care facilities. However, in the case of endoscopy equipment, due to the high cost of single-use endoscopes, use of disposable tools has been relatively limited, imposing time-consuming and costly cleansing of endoscopic probes between procedures. In recognizing the need for cost-effective endoscopic systems, CoreTek proposes a novel approach that will substantially reduce the cost of fiberoptic endoscopes by utilizing low-cost, easily manufacturable incoherent fiberoptic bundles for imaging. The proposed low-cost system eliminates the coherency requirement of conventional imaging fiber bundles and reduces the manufacturing cost at least by a factor of 10, enabling disposable endoscopes to be cost-effective for single-use . Under this Phase-I program, Coretek will demonstrate the concept and design a compact system that will fit into a personal computer. In Phase II, the proposed system will be optimized for the needs of endoscopy personnel.
Potential applications includes low-cost industrial and medical imaging probes that can be disposed after one use.
