Infraredx announces research collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital to explore new generation of cardiovascular imaging devices
BURLINGTON, Mass. – December 16, 2014 – Infraredx, Inc., a cardiovascular imaging company pioneering the personalized diagnosis of coronary artery disease, today announced a collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and leading coronary imaging researcher, Gary Tearney, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, Mike and Sue Hazard Family MGH Research Scholar, and founder of the Tearney Lab at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH. Dr. Tearney is best known for pioneering research efforts developing Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), an imaging technology that uses light-scattering to image coronary arteries. Infraredx and Dr. Tearney first collaborated over a decade ago on the development of the company’s near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology, which is now integrated into the company’s dual-modality intravascular TVC Imaging System™. The TVC Imaging System is the only FDA-cleared technology capable of rapidly, specifically and reliably identifying lipid core plaques, which are known to complicate stenting procedures and are suspected to be the vulnerable plaques that cause most heart attacks, using NIRS, and providing vessel structure information using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). “Coronary imaging has rapidly evolved over the past decade and has become an important part of the practice of diagnostic and interventional cardiology,” said Dr. Tearney. “I’m looking forward to once again collaborating with Infraredx who pioneered the development of the only FDA-cleared dual-modality NIRS-IVUS device which is playing a vital role in furthering our understanding of the vulnerable plaque and its correlation to future coronary events. Our partnership will focus on ways to harness the collective value of current imaging modalities in order to provide clinicians with more comprehensive information on the coronary vasculature to help guide treatment decisions.” “We’re excited to join forces with Mass General and Dr. Tearney to explore the possibility of creating a new generation of intravascular imaging tools that could improve our ability to diagnose and treat patients with coronary artery disease,” said Don Southard, president and chief executive officer of Infraredx. “The partnership, which combines Mass General’s world-class research organization with Infraredx’s expertise in intravascular imaging technology, has the potential to bring new innovation to the field of cardiovascular imaging.” The multi-year collaboration will focus on research and development of new and combination technologies that aim to provide enhanced information about coronary disease in patients.