Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

OCT Technology Transfer and the OCT Market

  • Reference work entry
Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

The field of optical coherence tomography (OCT) has blossomed dramatically since the first studies by various researchers around the world began in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since then cumulatively, there have been dozens of companies created, over a hundred research groups working on or with OCT, over a thousand OCT patents issued, over 10,000 research articles published, tens of millions of patients scanned with OCT, hundreds of millions of venture capital and corporate R&D dollars invested, hundreds of millions of dollars in company acquisitions, and over a billion of dollars of OCT system revenue. This chapter will describe some of the history and factors involved in OCT technology transfer and commercialization, give a snapshot of the current OCT market, and speculate on some future OCT issues.

Eric Swanson is a founder of Advanced Ophthalmic Devices (acquired by Carl Zeiss Meditec), Lightlab Imaging (acquired by St. Jude Medical), and has numerous patents that are licensed to various OCT companies. Mr. Swanson also served on the board of NinePoint Medical Imaging and several other high-tech companies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 449.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    In this analysis, only title and abstract were considered. The result is that this data probably underestimates the number of OCT publications but is a good bound. Another limitation is it can be difficult to categorize a publication into a particular subject area, and often publications are in multiple subject areas, and it is often a blurry call if the paper is about fundamental technology or about an application of the technology. Note this data is based on the PubMed database has many good attributes, but there are also limitations in that it doesn’t cover every journal, and the number of journals it covers has increased over time.

  2. 2.

    In the United States, the Bayh-Dole Act states that universities need to share royalties with the inventor.

  3. 3.

    Patent troll is a derogatory term for a company that creates or acquires patents and often use what some feel are unsavory tactics against alleged infringers in a manner that is aggressive and often they have no intention to produce any products of their own.

  4. 4.

    The Canadian data is from the combined Canadian funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC). The UK data is combined UK funding from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC), and Medical Research Council (MRC).

  5. 5.

    There are other OCT companies that currently exist or started in this time period but are not listed here due to their small scale and/or company status or desire to remain confidential.

References

  1. L. Pressman et al., The licensing of DNA patents by US academic Institutions: an empirical survey. Nat. Biotechnol. 24(1), 31–39 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. F.M. Scherer, D. Harhoff, Technology policy for a world of skew-distributed outcomes. Res. Policy 29, 559–566 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Association of University Technology Managers Survey: FY 2000, AUTM 10th Anniversary Edition, http://www.provendis.info/fileadmin/info/pdfs/1248.pdf

  4. C. Duhigg, S. Lohr, The Patent, Used as a Sword, The New York Times, 8 Oct 2012

    Google Scholar 

  5. E. Swanson, Optical Coherence Tomography Used $500M Federally Funded Research Over The Past Decade: How was it Used, What was Accomplished, and What’s to Come?, www.octnews.org, 16 Jul 2011 and BioOptics World, 1 Sept 2011

  6. M. Kempe, From research to routine medical diagnostics. Biomed. Eng. (2012). doi:10.1515/bmt-2012-4531

    Google Scholar 

  7. M. Kaschke, S. Meyer, M. Everett, C. Grahl, Optical coherence tomography: a case study in Medical Imaging Adoption. Biophotonics Optik. Photonik. 4(4), 24–28 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. E. Swanson, D. Huang, Ophthalmic OCT Reaches $1 Billion Per Year: But Reimbursement Clampdown Clouds Future Innovation, www.octnews.org, 9 Jul 2011 and Retinal Physician, 1 May 2011

  9. E. Swanson, Estimates of Ophthalmic OCT Market Size and the Dramatic Reduction in Reimbursement Payments, www.octnews.org, 1 Dec 2012

Download references

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following people for helpful discussion and contributions to this chapter. James Fujimoto, Joseph Schmitt, Jay Wei, Chris Petersen, David Huang, Jack Turner, Maciej Wojtkowski, Wolfgang Drexler, Peter Norris, Bertrand Le Conte de Poly, Lori Pressman, Eric Buckland, Rainer Nebosis, Brian Courtney, Masataka Tei, Ralph Johnston, Chris Ritter, Charles Carignan, Ewa Mentel, Gaku Takeuchi, Adam Wax, Arjun Desai, Sabrrina Klinkert, Jim Fulton, Michael Kempe, Jon Holmes, Frederic Sweeny, Eduardo Margallo, and Aaron Aguirre.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 66 Hesperus Avenue, Gloucester, MA, 01930, USA

    Eric A. Swanson

Authors
  1. Eric A. Swanson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eric A. Swanson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University Vienna, General Hospital Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Wolfgang Drexler

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    James G. Fujimoto

Appendix: Examples of Existing OCT Commercial Products

Appendix: Examples of Existing OCT Commercial Products

Below are some representative examples of existing OCT commercial products. There are more OCT system products on the market than those listed here, and several of the companies listed have multiple products.

figure a

Cirrus-HD OCT 5000 from Zeiss

figure b

Optovue Inc. RTVue and Handheld iVue OCT systems for ophthalmology

figure c

Topcon 3DOCT-2000 for ophthalmology

figure d

Nidek RS-3000 Advance for Ophthalmology

figure e

Heidelberg Engineering Spectralis OCT for ophthalmology

figure f

Canon OCT-HS100

figure g

Tomey Casia SS-1000 System for ophthalmology

figure h

Bioptigen Envisu C2300 SDOCT

figure i

Optos SLO/OCT System for Ophthalmology

figure j

St. Jude ILUMIENâ„¢ OPTISâ„¢ PCI Optimization System

figure k

Avinger Inc. Lightbox for guiding chronic total occlusions crossings and atherectomy

figure l

Terumo Lunawave Intravascular Imaging Console

figure m

Imalux Inc. Product for ENT, gynecology, and urology

figure n

Michelson Diagnostics VivoSight Hand-Held Dermatological Scanner

figure o

Santec IVS-300 Compact OCT System for research, industrial, biology, and medical applications

figure p

Thorlabs Telesto series Spectral Domain OCT System

figure q

Agfa HealthCare SKINTELL System for dermatology

figure r

LLTech high-resolution 1μm in 3D FF-OCT scanner

figure s

Heliotis AG: Ultra-Fast OCT sensor for automated inspection machines

figure t

NinePoint Medical Inc. NvisionVLE(tm) Imaging System for endoscopic applications; initial focus on gastroenterology

figure u

Abbot Medical Optics OCT Enabled Catalys System for Laser Cataract Surgery. Image courtesy of Abbott Medical Optics, Inc

figure v

Tomophase OCTIS Gen2 Console

figure w

VICTUS® Femtosecond Laser Platform with 2S-OCT technology

figure x

Schwind AMARIS 750S Excimer Laser for laser eye surgery with optional available integrated online pachymetry

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

Swanson, E.A. (2015). OCT Technology Transfer and the OCT Market. In: Drexler, W., Fujimoto, J. (eds) Optical Coherence Tomography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06419-2_86

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation