Convergent Dental Inc.'s (Natick, MA) Solea laser system—which, at 9.3 μm, is the first CO2 laser system ever cleared by the FDA for hard and soft tissue ablation—took a Gold award at the 2014 Medical Design Excellence Awards (MDEA). Solea promises speed, precision, virtually noiseless operation, and anesthesia-free operation for the vast majority of procedures.
Convergent was presented with the award on June 11, 2014, at the 2014 MDEA Ceremony held in conjunction with the MD&M East event at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, NY. Bronze-, silver-, and gold-level winners were announced in 11 categories.
Another photonics-based product also won one of the three prizes in the Dental Instruments, Equipment, and Supplies category: The compact, ergonomic Bluephase Style curing light, manufactured by by Ivoclar Vivadent AG (Schaan, Liechtenstein). The cordless, high-performance, LED-based device was designed to polymerize all light-curing dental materials.
NinePoint Medical (Cambridge, MA) won a silver medal in the Radiological and Electromechanical devices category for its NvisionVLE Imaging System, a volumetric optical coherence tomography (OCT) device that lets physicians and pathologists endoscopically view real-time, cross-sectional images of organs and tissues up to 3 mm deep at >10 μm resolution. NinePoint recently completed a $34 million Series B financing round to support the ongoing commercial launch in the U.S. of NvisionVLE and to expand product development. Corning Inc. (NYSE:GLW), along with founding investors Third Rock Ventures and Prospect Venture Partners, led the financing. As part of the largest intellectual property agreement for medical device technology in its history, the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH; Boston, MA) licensed the technology to NinePoint in 2010.
The MDEA awards celebrate the achievements of medical product manufacturers, their suppliers, and the many people behind the scenesengineers, scientists, designers, and clinicians—who are responsible for the groundbreaking products that are saving lives and changing the face of medtech. For a full list of winners, please see the MDEA site: http://www.mddionline.com/article/2014-medical-design-excellence-awards.