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APRIL 2003 Welcome to your latest issue of WHAT’S WORKING IN STRATEGIC OUTSOURCING, the monthly report for the clients of Optimum Technologies, Inc. Please feel free to pass this issue along to interested colleagues. In this issue: • Best Practices in Managing the Outsourcing Relationship • Micro Video Cameras Drive Endoscopy • Laws of Physics Broken! (sort of) • Life Science Optical Patents of Note • WPI Venture Forum news Best Practices in Managing the Outsourcing Relationship "Companies are no longer simply contracting out the scutwork. And the more they outsource, the stronger their ties to their vendors." This is the summary of a 140-page report available for free download from Firmbuilder.com. Many startup and emerging companies realize that their most valuable asset is their intellectual property (IP). To leverage their IP most effectively, these organizations are outsourcing more and more of their operations. As they do, they realize that it is the relationship itself that becomes the new strategic asset . However, outsourcing relationships demand the same care and attention to sound management principles and practices as do in-house operations and valued employees. Managed well, continuous improvement, increasing value, and constant innovation can be expected. Managed poorly, the services and overall relationship deteriorates resulting in higher costs, operational disruption and lost business opportunities. Download requires logging into Firmbuilder.com . Micro Video Cameras Drive Endsocopy When Given Imaging of Israel burst on the scene two years ago with it’s novel “pill camera”, the endoscopy world reeled. Was this the beginning of the end of conventional endoscopes? The verdict two years later: au contraire! Endoscopy is booming, with every segment continuing to see strong growth. One of the factors driving the growth is smaller and smaller video cameras. As video sensor formats migrate from ½” to ¼” to 1/10 ” and smaller, “electronic endoscopes” with sensors built into their distal tips are replacing scopes with coherent fiberoptic image bundles. The result: tremendous improvements in contrast, resolution, cost, and durability. Adding visualization to otherwise blind procedures is also enabling new medical procedures in uro-gynecology, gastroenterology and other specialties. Contact us to discuss how these tiny cameras can be incorporated into your products. New Microscope “Breaks Laws of Physics” Researchers at a group of universities have developed a microscope that overcomes the diffraction limit of optical imaging. Conventional microscopes cannot form images of objects that are smaller than the wavelength of light used to observe them. Since Galileo, this “diffraction limit” has been accepted as an unbreakable law of physics. To date, systems using visible wavelengths have therefore been able to see objects only as small as the staphylococcus bacteria (Figure 1 below). However, the near-field Raman spectroscopy technique has overcome these limits by measuring how laser light is scattered in a sample. The technique has achieved resolutions as small as 17nm, which will enable new realms of optical imaging of tiny objects such as ebola viruses and even potentially the minute rhinoviruses (Figures 2-3). Applications in drug discovery have also been identified. Read Article
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3Staphylococcus Enlarge Ebola Enlarge Rhinovirus Enlarge Life Science Optical Patents of Note Mid-Infrared Spectrometer Attachment To Light Microscopes -- SensIR Technologies of Danbury, CT has applied for an international patent for a device that directs infrared radiation into the optical path of an infinity-corrected, visible light microscope. The light direction device is a trichroic element, which is designed to be a reflector in the mid-infrared and a beam splitter in the near-infrared region. "The trichroic element in the visible region is either transparent, for observing near infrared radiation from the sample using commercially available video cameras, or a beam splitter for incorporating of a visible light illuminator in the attachment," say the inventors. WO 03/014679 Medical instruments and techniques for treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disease – Two California inventors have received a U.S. patent for a novel therapeutic instrument and technique for delivering thermal energy to tissue in an interior of a patient's body in a "non-invasive" manner. The device causes selective cell damage which leads to formation of a cellular collagen fiber matrix. One embodiment of the invention is a catheter-like device for transurethral introduction. RF electrodes are carried on the working faces of opposing laterally-extending elements for delivering thermal energy to the target tissues. 6,535,768 Medical Endoscope with Sealed Distal Focusing Means – Olympus Winter & Ibe of Germany has been issued a U.S. patent for an endoscope incorporating a metal bellows to seal a focusing adjustment at the distal tip. The design enables movement of a lens relative to an image train or sensor while preventing the ingress of water vapor that could condense on optical surfaces, causing a fogging of the image. The invention is important for fabrication of autoclavable endoscopes . 6,529,232 WPI Venture Forum News The April 8 meeting of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Venture Forum , titled “A Night of Business Planning”, will feature a keynote talk by Charles Collier, senior partner at Mount Vernon Strategies, about writing a successful business plan. This will be followed by the popular annual business plan competition results.
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