Medical Tactile, Inc., a Los Angeles company with tactile sensing technology expertise, has announced the introduction of the world’s first tactile sensing device for documenting clinical breast exams. The company believes that its FDA-cleared SureTouch Visual Mapping System will improve “the sensitivity, specificity and objectivity of manual breast palpation exams.” Current indication for this product, according to the FDA, is as an adjunct device for performing and documenting clinical breast exams.
The workings of the system:
The SureTouch Visual Mapping System electronically documents the Clinical Breast Exam (CBE). Simply palpate suspicious breast lesions with the hand-held tactile probe, and SureTouch instantly creates images of surface stress patterns.
The SureTouch probe houses an array of tactile sensors up to four times as sensitive as human touch and is clinically proven to accurately map lesions as small as 5mm.
SureTouch provides palpation images which are reproducible by different examiners, virtually eliminating the subjective nature of the CBE.
In seconds, SureTouch prints an objective electronic record to augment the patient’s chart. As a Physician Extender, SureTouch provides an indispensible visual aid for a more caring patient consultation.
The SureTouch Visual Mapping System electronically documents the Clinical Breast Exam (CBE). Simply palpate suspicious breast lesions with the hand-held tactile probe, and SureTouch instantly creates images of surface stress patterns.
A tactile sensor consists of an array of pressure transducers which produce a digital signal as the sensor is pressed and moved against tissue. The MTI tactile sensor technology provides greater sensing sensitivity and repeatability than competing technologies and is up to four times as sensitive as the human sense of touch.
Just as a digital camera captures the sense of sight, MTI’s tactile sensing technology captures the sense of touch. Using advanced, proprietary image processing algorithms, SureTouch extracts salient lesion information from raw tactile images, as shown in the figure below. This provides physicians with key information about the lesion without the need for specialized training in image interpretation and enables them to make informed real-time decisions regarding patient referral and course of care.
Someone needs to tell Tom Cruse about the system, though we are starting to believe he might be one of our regular readers.
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