A Guilford-based company is about to revolutionize ultrasound.
Later this year, Butterfly Network Inc. will introduce a hand-held device aimed at replacing today’s bulky and expensive ultrasound carts, said Dr. John Martin, the company’s chief medical officer.
Small enough to fit in a pocket, Butterfly iQ, which resembles a hand-held electric hair trimmer, hooks into an iPhone for instant imaging, Martin explained. In addition to its size and ease of use, the new generation device’s cost will be much lower, less than $2,000 compared to at least $25,000 to $40,000 for a cart, he said.
As result, Butterfly iQ will make ultrasound, a powerful diagnostic tool used to monitor fetuses and test for a wide variety of conditions and illnesses, far easier and more accessible, perhaps even allowing them to become a part of routine physicals, Martin said. The device also has the potential to revolutionize medicine in the Third World by making life-saving scans widely available there for the first time, he said.
Martin can attest personally to effectiveness of the device. He half-jokingly calls himself “patient one.” Last summer, while the product was still in development, he used it to check his neck after feeling discomfort there and discovered he had throat cancer.
“A five-and-a-half hour operation and seven weeks of radiation later, and I’m still here,” Martin said. “Hopefully, it saved my life.”
The man who conceived of the science fiction-like device, reminiscent of the tricorder used by the Dr. McCoy character on Star Trek, is Butterfly Network founder Jonathan M. Rothberg. A serial entrepreneur most famous for inventing high-speed and inexpensive DNA sequencing, Rothberg said his goal is to democratize ultrasound just as he did for DNA sequencing.
“This is an important first step in fulfilling the promise of bringing ultrasound to millions that do not have access to this essential medical technology,” Rothberg said. “Two-thirds of the world has no access to medical imaging, and, even in the developed world, expense and lack of expertise limit its accessibility.”
That expertise problem is also something Butterfly is tackling, Martin said. Administering and interpreting ultrasound requires considerable training, he said. Butterfly iQ will include a feature enabling a medical professional to communicate remotely with a qualified doctor who can guide him or her through the procedure and read the result, he said.
The long-term goal is even more ambitious: leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning so Butterfly iQ can do the test and interpret results on its own, Martin said. In its initial incarnation, Butterfly iQ will have that capability for a common heart test, he said.
The company is undecided on offering a service to connect Butterfly users to qualified ultrasound experts, Martin said.
So how is Butterfly able to replace such a large, cumbersome device with a much smaller and cheaper one? Existing ultrasound technology uses relatively large, fragile and expensive crystals to generate images, Martin said. Butterfly iQ, by contrast, employs smaller and less expensive computer chips, he said.
“It’s the way the ultrasound waves are created,” Martin said. “Today, they are created with crystals you have to hand-wire. With our device, they are made with a computer chip.”
Another advantage: Butterfly does not need different probes for different types of ultrasound like conventional machines, Martin said.
Butterfly is planning to release Butterfly iQ in the fall, Martin said. The company has already received thousands of pre-orders from medical schools, hospitals and others, he said. “Everyone is anxiously waiting for the device to be shipped,” he said.
Butterfly is also in discussions with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about ways to maximize the impact of firm’s chip-based imaging technology in developing countries, he said.
Butterfly Network and its product, Butterfly iQ, grew out of 4Catalyzer, a Guilford-based bioscience incubator founded and operated by Rothberg. The company has close to 100 employees in New York City and Palo Alto, Cal. as well as Guilford, Martin said. The device was designed primarily in Guilford and will be manufactured overseas, he said.
Christopher Hoffman can be reached at news@newhavenbiz.com
