Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Added Dimensions: EchoPixel Brings Scans Into The 3D World

August 18, 2017 By Daniel Seeger

Plenty of companies are trying to determine how to best leverage virtual reality and similar technologies to modernize healthcare. EchoPixel is somewhat unique in that it started on that quest from an outsider perspective.

“EchoPixel is my second company,” explains Sergio Aguirre, MSc, founder and CTO of EchoPixel. “My previous company focused on visualization systems for geographic information systems and oil exploration. But I was always curious about getting into the medical space. Once I discovered radiology, I decided to start EchoPixel.”

In Aguirre’s view, the healthcare community wasn’t taking full advantage of the data they already had on hand. Although imaging technology gathers information on anatomy that is best examined and understood in its complete form, most physicians look at scans in a 2D format.

Aguirre determined there was a better methodology, allowing the gathered data to be presented in 3D format, more accurately replicating what surgeons encounter when in a procedure. But Aguirre also understood he’d benefit from the insights of the healthcare professionals who’d be reliant on the tools he developed.

“We engage with clinicians and try to understand the clinical problems to great depths and try to understand how our technology can alleviate those problems,” Aguirre says. “Then we combine those things we come up with new ways for clinicians to visualize and interact with the data to make it more efficient and effective for them.”

Any notion that physicians aren’t tech-savvy is countered strongly by the experience of Aguirre and the EchoPixel team. They’ve found that healthcare professionals have a strong grasp of all the different possibilities, but pulling all the components together into a new, complete solution eludes them.

Of course, that’s where EchoPixel comes in.

“A lot of people think — and this is one of the things that doctors who are tech-savvy stumble upon — is that if only they had this hologram, they‘d be able to see everything; that’s not necessarily true,” Aguirre says. “You can incur data overload very quickly. CTs and MRI have an abundance of data. So, you need the right interaction tools to get to part of the data that you want.”

The EchoPixel software is designed to maximize the existing data to generate a 3D image that can be viewed above a flat panel monitor set horizontally or at an incline.

“Imagine lines coming out of each corner of a display that creates a cube on top of the flat panel,” says Aguirre. “And within that space you can load data from a PACS server or from whatever imaging repository the hospital has: CT, MRI, or ultrasound image data. The data is presented as patient specific 3D body parts.”

Once the 3D image is in front of the physician, they can use a stylus to interact with it.

“You can move around it and see around it,” notes Aguirre. “You can use a stylus to reach into that open 3D space and create cross-sections or measurements of the data or even take parts of the data out.”

This approach allows surgeons to examine the area they’ll be operating on before the patient goes under anesthesia. It can be precise enough — perfectly duplicating dimensions, size, and placement — to allow surgeons to extensively practice, developing muscle memory for the procedure before the patient is wheeled into the OR.

As an example, Aguirre recounts how the system might be used for a complicated heart surgery.

“Let’s say that you have a pulmonary valve replacement or they’re doing some pulmonary artery defect correction or even septal defects,” he says. “Instead of doing full sternotomy, they might want to do a partial sternotomy. So, what they do is they bring the data they have and put the patient in the same orientation and position they will have on the operating table. They use our stylus to define and edit the data of how that partial sternotomy is going to look like once they have the patient opened up.”

Surgeons can check that all the instruments will fit comfortably and anticipate other potential issues. They can also use the EchoPixel tool to make sure the entire surgical team has a complete understanding of the plan before the procedure gets underway.

For especially complicated procedures, surgical teams can even pause in the midst of their work to consult the EchoPixel imaging as confirmation they’re still on the right clinical path.

Aguirre believes that all surgeons should incorporate strategic use of medical imaging directly into their work. Too many hospitals, he notes, still rely on a structure that’s reliant upon radiologists analyzing imaging data and composing summaries for surgeons.

He also recognizes the inherent disconnect between most current imaging technologies and the needs of surgeons. He suggests EchoPixel is especially well suited to bridge that divide.

“The other reason these different surgical specialties are not necessarily utilizing medical images is because it’s not anatomically meaningful to them,” Aguirre says. “They were not trained to look at 2D images. We talk to surgeons about imaging and they say, ‘I never open a patient and see a 2D view which makes it very difficult to understand what exactly I should expect in the OR.’”

EchoPixel doesn’t just add a dimension; it provides a recognizable view of the patient. For surgeons, that is no small distinction.

Related Articles Read More >

This is a Zimmer Biomet marketing image of its Rosa robotic surgery system.
Zimmer Biomet seeks a ZBEdge for its Rosa robotic surgery
A photo of Capstan Medical's mitral valve implant, which uses nitinol.
Capstan Medical’s R&D head discusses the heart valve and robotics startup’s tech, engineering challenges and solutions, advice for others in medtech and how to join his team
An illustration of a neurosurgeon using a robotic endoscope to remove a brain tumor.
MDO Nitinol Innovation Special Report
A photo of Highridge Medical CEO Rebecca Whitney.
Highridge Medical is betting on this spine tech
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe