Lucid’s VivaScope® Reflective Confocal Microscope Approved for Sale in China

ROCHESTER, NY, USA, - March 24, 2008 – China’s State Food and Drug Administration has approved the sale of the pioneering Lucid VivaScope® reflective confocal microscope in the Peoples Republic of China, said Jay Eastman, CEO of Lucid, a Rochester, New York-based medical device and information company dedicated to providing improved care for dermatology patients.

Lucid’s VivaScope® reflective confocal microscopes (RCM) provide non-invasive, in-vivo cellular resolution images of skin. Dermatologists can use the images to form a clinical judgment for a variety of skin conditions -- without the need for surgery to excise tissue – thus improving the quality of care for their patients.

“Just as MRI and CT scans have largely eliminated the need for routine ‘exploratory surgery’, the use of Lucid’s VivaScope® confocal microscopes may one day eliminate the need for routine invasive skin biopsies,” Eastman explained.

“This milestone announcement opens opportunities for application of confocal microscopes to evaluate and monitor treatment of skin inflammatory and pigmentation disorders with leading hospitals throughout China,” Eastman said.

“I am very pleased to see this positive outcome from a long and detailed review process that will allow us to participate in one of the fastest growing medical markets in the world,” he said. “We believe that reflectance confocal microscopes will become a standard clinical tool with its capacity to take painless, non-invasive optical biopsies of a wide range of skin lesions and disorders.”

Sales of Lucid’s VivaScope® confocal microscopes in China will be handled by ConBio (China) Co., Ltd, Eastman said.

Dr Qiushi Ren, CEO, ConBio said, “We are excited by the opportunity to introduce Lucid’s unique, leading RCM technology to Chinese doctors and building our business together.”

Founded in 1996, ConBio is a multi-specialty health care company focused on providing innovative medical devices that enable people to live life to its greatest potential. ConBio has built strategic relationships with famous manufacturers in the dermatology, plastic and ophthalmologic fields around the world, including Lucid, Cutera, RA Medical, MedArt, Lutronic, Allergan, Schwind with a goal of becoming the leading provider of the advanced medical lasers, instruments and materials in China. ConBio has successfully sold more than 1,000 units of capital equipment to customers in China and prides itself on their after-sales service.

For information, visit Lucid’s website at http://www.lucid-tech.com. Contact Lucid in China at ConBio (China) Co., Ltd., by email at qren@shanghai-conbio.com or by phone at: + 86 21 62720751. In the USA, contact Lucid by email at info@lucid-tech.com, or by phone at +1-585-239-9800.

About Lucid, Inc.
Lucid, Inc. (www.lucid-tech.com), based in Rochester, New York (USA) is a medical device and information company with offices in North America, Europe, and Australia. Lucid is dedicated to providing improved care for dermatology patients by coupling its noninvasive VivaScope® cellular imaging technology with its innovative VivaNet® medical information system to allow secure, HIPAA compliant, near real-time collaboration between dermatologists and other medical specialists. The VivaNet® system provides rapid online medical image transfer, storage, and retrieval thus enabling these critical collaborative consultations. The technologies delivered by Lucid provide images that physicians use in forming critical clinical judgments in cases of dermatologic disease, while ensuring patient comfort and piece of mind.

VivaNet® and VivaScope® are registered trademarks of Lucid, Inc.

# # #

Public Relations contact: Tiziani Whitmyre Inc., http://www.tizinc.com/

post to del.icio.us

Technorati tags: biopsy, biopsies, dermatology, dermatologists, actinic keratoses, field cancerisation, VivaScope, confocal microscopy, in-vivo confocal microscopy, pigmented lesion, melanoma, telemedicine server, pathologists, microscopy, DICOM, DICOM-compliant, confocal imager, cellular resolution image, China

First Atlas Detailing In Vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy Published

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, USA – February 20, 2008 – As skin cancer cases continue to rise, the worldwide deployment of In Vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy (RCM) (Confocal Imaging) technology – which produces digital images of a patient’s skin with cellular detail similar to that obtained from histology of surgical biopsies – can help healthcare practitioners both speed and improve their clinical judgments and assist in monitoring treatment. In support of RCM technology, the world’s first available comprehensive atlas detailing the technology has been published.

"Reflectance Confocal Microscopy of Cutaneous Tumors: An Atlas with Clinical, Dermoscopic and Histological Correlations" (Salvador González, Melissa Gill, and Allan C. Halpern, Editors; Informa Healthcare, Publisher), is a comprehensive, full-color atlas detailing the potential of RCM technology and its possible applications for clinical practitioners. The hard-cover first edition atlas totals 280-pages.

Specifically, In Vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy allows optical sectioning of an area of skin without physical sectioning, assisting dermatologists to examine detailed features of a skin lesion without taking a biopsy specimen. RCM technology can also assist dermatopathologists to determine the best location for a section and dermatological surgeons to determine the margins of a lesion to be excised.

The contents of "Reflectance Confocal Microscopy of Cutaneous Tumors" are:
I. BASIC PRINCIPLES
II. NORMAL SKIN
III. KERATINOCYTIC TUMORS (Seborrheic keratoses, Clear cell acanthoma, Porokeratosis, Squamous neoplasia, Basal cell carcinoma)
IV. MELANOCYTIC TUMORS (Lentigo, Congenital and common acquired melanocytic nevi, Dysplastic nevi, Malignant melanoma, Blue nevus, Spitz nevus)
V. OTHER TUMORS (Trichoepithelioma, Sebaceous hyperplasia, Dermatofibroma, Angioma, Mycosis fungoides)
VI. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS (Adjunct to clinical diagnosis, RCM-guided biopsy site selection, RCM-assisted assessment of treatment response, RCM-assisted in-vivo margin mapping, RCM-Assisted ex-vivo margin assessment)
VII. FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

The editors of the atlas are three of the world’s leading RCM medical researchers: Salvador González, M.D., Ph.D., Faculty, Dermatology, MSKCC, New York, NY, Assistant Prof, Dermatology, HMS, Boston, Mass., USA; Melissa Gill, M.D., Dermatopathologist, Quest Diagnostics Inc., Teterboro, New Jersey, USA (formerly with MSKCC, New York, NY); and Allan C. Halpern, Chief, Dermatology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY USA.

"Reflectance Confocal Microscopy of Cutaneous Tumors" (ISBN: 9780415451048) is available immediately from Informa Healthcare (http://catalogue.informahealthcare.com/) at http://catalogue.informahealthcare.com/pjbp/products/10001043243;jsessionid=2F12CE3F716298BA32B2362B147D00B6.

Lucid Inc. an RCM Leader
The leader in the development and worldwide deployment of RCM technology is Lucid, Inc. (http://www.lucid-tech.com/) of Rochester, New York, USA. Lucid is the creator of the VivaScope® reflective confocal microscopy imaging microscope and of the VivaNet®, a network-based, DICOM-compliant medical information system that enables the transfer of VivaScope® digital images between practitioners and pathologists for rapid review of confocal images.

Atlas author Dr. González is among several European diagnostic readers providing confocal imaging services for European dermatology patients using Lucid’s VivaScope® Confocal Imagers. The readers are also beginning validation testing of Lucid’s VivaNet® telemedicine information system of transferring and managing clinical data between the private practitioners and the diagnostic readers.

For information on Lucid’s VivaScope® or VivaNet® technology, contact Lucid on the web at http://www.lucid-tech.com/, by email at info@lucid-tech.com, or by phone at +1-585-239-9800.

# # #

Public Relations contact: Tiziani Whitmyre Inc., http://www.tizinc.com/

post to del.icio.us

Technorati tags: biopsy, biopsies, dermatology, dermatologists, actinic keratoses, field cancerisation, VivaScope, confocal microscopy, in-vivo confocal microscopy, pigmented lesion, melanoma, telemedicine server, pathologists, microscopy, DICOM, DICOM-compliant, confocal imager, cellular resolution image

Lucid Launches VivaNet® Telemedicine Server for Dermatology Applications

ROCHESTER, NY, USA, - February 12, 2008 – Lucid, Inc. (http://www.lucid-tech.com/) today announced the launch of its secure VivaNet® telemedicine server and network. The network is designed to transfer and manage clinical data between dermatology practitioners using Lucid’s non-invasive VivaScope® Confocal Imagers with pathologists or other medical specialists.

Lucid’s VivaScope® confocal imager microscopes provide non-invasive, in-vivo cellular resolution images of skin. Dermatologists can use the images to form a clinical judgment for a variety of skin conditions -- without the need to excise tissue.

The VivaNet® network provides fast, accurate and secure storage, retrieval, and transfer of VivaScope images across the Internet or Lucid’s private network service. Its launch will make VivaScope® images available for review by other dermatologists and pathologists in minutes – thus enabling rapid, real-time professional collaboration.

“With VivaNet®, practitioners can rapidly receive a pathologic interpretation of confocal images from a VivaScope® session, potentially assisting physicians in arriving at a clinical judgment while a patient is still in the doctor’s office,” said Jay Eastman, CEO, Lucid Inc.

“Just as MRI and CT scans have largely eliminated the need for routine ‘exploratory surgery’, the use of the VivaNet® network in conjunction with VivaScope® confocal microscopes may one day eliminate the need for routine invasive skin biopsies,” he said.

During a typical session, once VivaScope® images are captured, they are uploaded to the secure VivaNet® server, along with other patient-related data. From there, the patient image set is immediately available for retrieval by and transfer to other authorized practitioners.

The advantages of the VivaNet® network include:

• Secure sharing of digital cellular resolution images among medical professionals
• Fast, accurate, secure information exchange to enable clinical judgments of patient skin lesions
• Rapid, near-real-time clinical reporting
• Ensured HIPAA compliance, privacy, and data integrity via DICOM-compliant, standardized medical image storage, retrieval, and transfer

The VivaNet® network has been launched for near term use by dermatologists, as users of the VivaScope® microscopes, and pathologists, as readers of VivaScope images, in the US, Europe and Australia. For more information, visit http://www.lucid-tech.com/ or call +1-585-239-9800.

About Lucid, Inc.
Lucid, Inc. (http://www.lucid-tech.com/), based in Rochester, New York (USA) is a medical device and information company with offices in North America, Europe, and Australia. Lucid is dedicated to providing improved care for dermatology patients by coupling its noninvasive VivaScope® cellular imaging technology with its innovative VivaNet® medical information system to allow secure, HIPAA compliant, near real-time collaboration between dermatologists and other medical specialists. The VivaNet® system provides rapid online medical image transfer, storage, and retrieval thus enabling these critical collaborative consultations. The technologies delivered by Lucid provide images that physicians use in forming critical clinical judgments in cases of dermatologic disease, while ensuring patient comfort and piece of mind.

VivaNet® and VivaScope® are registered trademarks of Lucid, Inc.

# # #

Public Relations contact: Tiziani Whitmyre Inc., http://www.tizinc.com/

post to del.icio.us

Technorati tags: biopsy, biopsies, dermatology, dermatologists, actinic keratoses, field cancerisation, VivaScope, confocal microscopy, in-vivo confocal microscopy, pigmented lesion, melanoma, telemedicine server, pathologists, microscopy, DICOM, DICOM-compliant, confocal imager, cellular resolution image

A Pain-Free Window Into Painful Neuropathies

UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, USA – December 5, 2007 -- Scientists have demonstrated a new technique for detecting a painful nerve condition known as neuropathy, which affects millions of people with diabetes and many other patients as well.

The painless technique focuses on tiny structures in the skin known as Meissner corpuscles, which encapsulate the endings of microscopic nerves in our hands, feet, and other areas. When someone tickles your feet, or lightly brushes the palm of your hand, or gives you a kiss - it’s Meissner corpuscles that are detecting the touch. The tiny structures act like little sensors, allowing us to feel light touch and pressure.

Now a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, working together with scientists from Lucid Technologies in Rochester, N.Y., has demonstrated a new way to monitor the structures, which offer a direct window into a condition known as peripheral neuropathy. The team showed that reflectance confocal microscopy, a technology for looking just beneath the surface of the skin, can be used to see and count the number of the structures in a person’s
fingers and hands. The work gives doctors a non-invasive way to detect and monitor the progression of nerve damage in patients.

The research appears in the December 4 issue of the journal Neurology.

Doctors have known that the number and density of Meissner corpuscles in a person’s hands and feet offer a snapshot into the degree of a patient’s nerve damage. As nerves degenerate and die, the corpuscles disappear. The difficulty has been actually visualizing and counting them.

Currently, doctors take a small biopsy of the skin, freeze and stain the tissue, and then count the structures. Neurologist David Herrmann, MBBCh, the lead author of the Neurology paper, helped develop and popularize skin biopsy about 10 years ago as a way to keep close track of the condition of nerves in patients. At the time, for some forms of peripheral neuropathy, it was a big improvement over previous methods, which required a much larger biopsy of a large nerve.

Even so, “Taking a small piece of skin is not ideal,” said Herrmann, associate professor of Neurology and of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. “It can be painful for the patient; the processing can be time-consuming; and it’s impossible to measure the exact same area of skin year to year to track the progression of the disease.”

A few years ago Herrmann met a scientist from Lucid, a medical device and information company that is creating tools for physicians based on innovative technologies such as confocal microscopy. The technology uses light to actually look beyond the surface of skin tissue into the layers of skin below. The technology is being used more and more to track skin cancers and to look at tissue samples in the operating room.

Herrmann and the Lucid team began a study of some of the tiniest nerves in our body, those that reach into the furthest reaches of our hands and feet. Damage to those nerves leads to a variety of troublesome symptoms for the millions of Americans who have some type of peripheral neuropathy. Symptoms in the feet and hands can include numbness, burning, tingling, weakness, and pain.

While diabetes is the most common cause of neuropathy, it’s caused by a variety of other conditions as well. Patients with HIV are prone to getting it. Excess alcohol consumption can bring it on, as can some vitamin deficiencies, cancer treatments, and dozens of inherited disorders, most notably Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

“These patients are often dismissed, and many really suffer,” said Herrmann. “Diagnosis is often difficult. The small nerves in the skin are basically invisible to standard techniques for checking the function of a person’s nerves, such as conduction tests.”

So Herrmann lined up 15 little pinkies - well, 15 research subjects willing to put their little pinkies under the microscope. The group included 10 healthy people, and five who had neuropathies from various causes, such as diabetes or HIV.

The researchers found, as expected, that the healthy volunteers had many more Meissner corpuscles in the tip of the pinkie finger - about 12 such structures per square millimeter, compared to a mean of 2.8 in people with neuropathy. Patients with neuropathy also had fewer of the structures at the base of the thumb.

While the results were not surprising, attaining them so easily was. Volunteers simply held their pinkie finger under a microscope for a few minutes. No pain, no blood, no tissue preparation.

In an editorial about the research, Peter J. Dyck, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic wrote in the journal, “The approach may find use as the gold standard of tactile sensation and of large fiber sensorimotor polyneuropathy.” But he also pointed out some limitations of the work. Dyck said the technique needs to be tested in greater numbers of people, pointed out that the equipment needed for reflectance confocal microscopy is expensive, and mentioned the need to differentiate between healthy and abnormal Meissner corpuscles.

An advance in screening would be appreciated by millions of patients. More than half of people with diabetes will eventually develop neuropathy. Most of them won’t feel pain - they’ll simply lose sensation in their feet, making them vulnerable to wounds that can result in severe infections. Oftentimes sensation slips away so gradually that patients don’t even notice. A new screening tool would help doctors monitor patients more closely so that both they and patients are aware of nerve damage and can do everything they can to prevent further damage.

“Neuropathy is very difficult to treat, and part of the reason is that currently, we usually identify it too late, after there has been significant damage,” said Herrmann, director of the Peripheral Neuropathy Service at Strong Memorial Hospital. “Treatments might be more beneficial if we could detect the condition earlier.

“The idea is to move from an invasive biopsy for monitoring nerve endings, to non-invasive, painless approaches. A person could have this technique done as frequently as is necessary, for instance. That’s an attractive notion for tracking the condition of nerves in patients,” said Herrmann, who is now assessing the technique in 75 people, with funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

In addition to Herrmann, authors of the paper from Lucid were pathologist J. Neil Boger, M.D.; Christi Alessi-Fox; and Cortney Jansen, who began work on the project when she was an undergraduate biomedical engineering major at the University of Rochester.

# # #

post to del.icio.us

Technorati tags: biopsy, biopsies, confocal microscopy, in-vivo confocal microscopy, confocal imager, cellular resolution image, peripheral neuropathy, neuropathy

Lucid Expands Support Internationally: Dr. Colin Stahel appointed Director for Asia Pacific Region

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, USA – December 11, 2007- Lucid, Inc. (http://www.lucid-tech.com/), a leading U.S. cellular imaging and technology company, has appointed Dr. Colin Stahel as Director, Asia Pacific Region.

Based in Sydney, Australia, Stahel was selected for the newly created position based on his extensive medical technology experience.

“With over twenty years of experience in the development of medical technology and pre-cancer and cancer detection equipment, Stahel is a welcome addition to the Lucid team,” said Jay Eastman, chairman and CEO of Lucid, Inc (http://www.lucid-tech.com/). “His knowledge of the field will suit his new responsibilities in the international community.”

Previously, Stahel was the senior manager with Polartechnics where he worked directly with the SolarScan digital dermatoscope and TruScreen Division for real time detection of cervical cancer, both based in Australia.

Dr. Colin D. Stahel holds a Ph.D. in physiology from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Tasmania in Australia, and a MBA from Macquarie University of Australia.

Lucid is the creator of the non-invasive VivaScope confocal microscope that provided cellular resolution images of skin, and of the VivaNet, an internet-based, DICOM-compliant medical information systems that enables the transfer of VivaScope digital images between practitioners and pathologists for rapid review of confocal images. Lucid’s VivaScopes are in regular use throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia.

For more information about Lucid Inc., visit http://www.lucid-tech.com/ or call 1-585-239-9800.

About Lucid, Inc.
Lucid Inc., based in Rochester, New York, is a medical device and information company dedicated to creating innovative cellular imaging technology and using the Internet to securely deliver accurate, real-time VivaScope® cellular resolution images to medical professionals. The Company’s digital VivaNetTM server, coupled with its ability to image in-vivo (living) tissue is envisioned to ultimately aid medical practitioners and pathologists in screening for skin cancer and other dermatologic conditions with clarity, speed and patient comfort. For more information, visit http://www.lucid-tech.com/.

# # #

Public Relations contact: Tiziani Whitmyre Inc., http://www.tizinc.com/

post to del.icio.us

Technorati tags: biopsy, biopsies, dermatology, dermatologists, actinic keratoses, field cancerisation, VivaScope, confocal microscopy, in-vivo confocal microscopy, pigmented lesion, melanoma, telemedicine server, pathologists, microscopy, DICOM, DICOM-compliant, confocal imager, cellular resolution image

William Shea Elected as Chairman of Lucid, Inc.

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, USA – December 5, 2007 – William J. Shea has been elected to serve as Chairman of Lucid, Inc., the leading medical cellular imaging technology and information company. Shea brings a wealth of executive and financial leadership to the company, having previously served as CEO of Conseco, Vice Chairman and CFO of BankBoston and senior partner and Vice Chairman of Coopers and Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

As Lucid Board Chairman, Shea will be responsible for managing the Board's business in its fiduciary role for shareholders and in its supervisory and advisory roles to the CEO and the management team of the company.

“Lucid is well positioned to transition its VivaNet technology from clinical research to routine clinical application and the company’s compelling business model is well protected by patents, both in the United States and abroad,” Shea stated. “I am looking forward to assisting the company through the exciting and challenging growth stage we envision in the next few years ahead.”

Shea, a resident of Andover, Mass., is a veteran corporate leader with a series of dramatic success stories within the financial services industry. He previously held the position of CEO of Conseco, an insurance, annuity, and financial services company. In the position, Shea increased the company’s market capitalization by more than $3.5 billion.

Before that, Shea was Vice Chairman and CFO of BankBoston where he led a fundamental restructuring that increased shareholder value tenfold.

“I am delighted that Bill Shea accepted the position of Chairman of Lucid’s Board of Directors,” said Jay Eastman, CEO of Lucid. “Bill’s experience will be invaluable resource to me and the other members of the company’s management team as we commercialize our VivaNet technology in the United States, Europe and Australia.”

Lucid (www.lucid-tech.com) is an innovative and dynamic company with a broad technology portfolio in the medical imaging and information fields. Based in Rochester, New York, the company is creator of the non-invasive VivaScope® confocal microscope that provides cellular resolution images of skin, and of the VivaNet™, an Internet-based, DICOM-compliant medical information system that enables the transfer of confocal images between practitioners and pathologists for rapid review and diagnosis.

For more information, visit Lucid online at www.lucid-tech.com, by email: info@lucid-tech.com, or by phone: 585-239-9800.

# # #

Public Relations contact: Tiziani Whitmyre Inc., http://www.tizinc.com

post to del.icio.us

Technorati tags: biopsy, biopsies, dermatology, dermatologists, actinic keratoses, field cancerisation, VivaScope, confocal microscopy, in-vivo confocal microscopy, pigmented lesion, melanoma, telemedicine server, pathologists, microscopy, DICOM, DICOM-compliant, confocal imager, cellular resolution image

Lucid Expands Support, Development for Cellular Imaging Technology Network

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, USA – November 19, 2007 – Lucid, Inc. (http://www.lucid-tech.com/), a leading U.S. cellular imaging and technology company, today announced the appointment of Kenneth Centola of Hilton, New York as Imaging Specialist and Christian Costa of Macedon, New York as Applications Engineer.

“Customer service is the cornerstone of Lucid’s sales and marketing policy. With the addition of Ken and Christian to the Lucid team, we are further raising the bar on our service offering,” said John Nugent, vice president of global sales and marketing for Lucid.

In the newly created position, Centola will work directly with Lucid’s VivaNet imaging sites worldwide. He will help in the creation of community based sites, train onsite imagers, and monitor ongoing performance. Centola holds a degree in Radiologic Technology from Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, and is a licensed Radiologic Technologist by the New York State Department of Health.

Costa will work in business development for Lucid and act as a liaison with medical professionals and customers with relation to the demonstration, installation, and training of VivaScope products. Costa will also consult with engineering personnel to track customer satisfaction, product performance, and product improvements.

Lucid is the creator of the non-invasive VivaScope® confocal microscope that provides cellular resolution images of skin, and of the VivaNet™, an Internet-based, DICOM-compliant medical information system that enables the transfer of VivaScope® digital images between practitioners and pathologists for rapid review of confocal images.

For more information about Lucid and Confocal Imaging solutions, visit http://www.lucid-tech.com/ on the Web, by phone at 1-585-239-9800, or by email info@lucid-tech.com.

About Lucid Inc.
Lucid, Inc., based in Rochester, New York, USA, is a medical device and information company dedicated to deploying its innovative cellular imaging technology and using the VivaNet Internet based medical information system to securely deliver accurate, real-time VivaScope® cellular resolution images to medical professionals. When coupled with its digital VivaNetTM system, the company’s ability to image in-vivo (living) tissue will aid medical practitioners and pathologists in skin cancer screening with clarity, speed and patient comfort. For more information about Lucid Inc., visit http://www.lucid-tech.com/ or call +1-585-239-9800.

# # #

Public Relations contact: Tiziani Whitmyre Inc., http://www.tizinc.com/

post to del.icio.us

Technorati tags: biopsy, biopsies, dermatology, dermatologists, actinic keratoses, field cancerisation, VivaScope, confocal microscopy, in-vivo confocal microscopy, pigmented lesion, melanoma, telemedicine server, pathologists, microscopy, DICOM, DICOM-compliant, confocal imager, cellular resolution image

VivaScope® Confocal Imager May Eliminate Need for Routine Skin Biopsies for Dermatology Patients

ROCHESTER, NY – October 16, 2007 -- Many routine surgical biopsies could become a thing of the past as dermatologists may soon be sharing, reviewing and diagnosing noninvasive digital images of skin cells via the Internet, using Lucid Inc.’s VivaNet™ telemedicine server and its VivaScope® confocal imagers.

The technology, which relies on using special microscopes to digitally image a patient’s skin, may bypass the need to surgically biopsy many patients. “VivaScope imaging sessions require only 5 to 10 minutes of a physician’s assistant’s time,” said Jay Eastman, Ph.D., CEO, Lucid Inc. (http://www.lucid-tech.com/.

The cellular resolution images may then be used by physicians to assist in forming a clinical judgment for a variety of skin conditions, including, for example, melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, actinic keratoses, and contact dermatitis.

A typical VivaScope imaging session produces two types of images of the patient’s skin: dermatoscopic-quality, full-color macroscopic pictures, and microscopic, cellular resolution images. Like a routine biopsy, the images can then be read by a dermatologist or a pathologist and the diagnosis presented to the patient.

“Just as MRI and CT scans have largely eliminated the need for routine exploratory surgery, in-vivo confocal imaging may one day eliminate the need for routine invasive skin biopsy,” Eastman stated.

Improving Quality of Life for Dermatology Patients

Already, dozens of Lucid’s VivaScopes are in regular use throughout the U.S. and Europe. “Lucid’s VivaScope® 1500 has the capability of imaging virtually all types of skin cancers, which makes it useful for many everyday procedures in a dermatology practice,” stated Dr. Harold Rabinovitz, a Florida based dermatologist who specializes in skin cancer. “The VivaScope is an incredible diagnostic tool and now routinely aids me in the clinical evaluation of potential skin cancers.”

The Company is also developing an Internet-based application, the Lucid VivaNetTM, to enable the transfer of VivaScope digital images between practitioners and pathologists for rapid review of confocal images. The VivaNet technology conforms to DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine), an internationally accepted standard for the secure storage, retrieval and transfer of medical images, and it complies with federal HIPAA requirements for privacy and integrity of medical data.

Ultimately, the VivaNet could make VivaScope images available for review by other dermatologists and pathologists – anywhere in the world – in minutes, not days – thus enabling rapid, real-time professional collaboration. The ultimate goal is that practitioners will rapidly receive a pathologic interpretation of confocal images from a VivaScope session, potentially assisting the practitioner in arriving at a clinical judgment while the patient is still in the doctor’s office, Eastman said.

“It’s our hope that the VivaScope and VivaNet will improve the quality of life for dermatology patients by eliminating the need for painful, invasive skin biopsies and drastically reducing the time required for diagnosis and treatment,” Eastman said.

For information on Lucid’s VivaScope or VivaNet technology, contact Lucid by phone at 585-239-9800, by email at info@lucid-tech.com, or on the web at http://www.lucid-tech.com/.

# # #

Public Relations contact: Tiziani Whitmyre Inc.

post to del.icio.us

Technorati tags: biopsy, biopsies, dermatology, dermatologists, actinic keratoses, field cancerisation, VivaScope, confocal microscopy, in-vivo confocal microscopy, pigmented lesion, melanoma, telemedicine server, pathologists, microscopy, DICOM, DICOM-compliant, confocal imager, cellular resolution image