VIDA Diagnostics

CEOCFO-Members Login

July 29, 2013 Issue

The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information

INDEX  |  CONTACT  |   SERVICES  | HOME

Providing Quantitative Pulmonary Image Analysis Services and Software, VIDA Diagnostics is helping Physicians with Early Detection, Evaluation and Treatment Planning of Pulmonary Disease including COPD, Lung Cancer and Asthma

Susan Wood
President & CEO


Dr. Wood has 15 years of experience championing innovative clinical solutions to the marketplace, from concept to revenue.

 

Dr. Wood most recently held the position of executive Vice President of Marketing and Technology for Vital Images, an innovative software company specializing in cardiovascular applications for advanced analysis software. Prior to Vital Images, Dr. Wood spent eight years at R2 Technology, most recently serving as VP of Marketing, where she championed the development, regulatory approval and commercial release of the first FDA approved (PMA) software product for the automatic detection of lung nodules in both diagnostic and screening chest CT examinations. She worked for three years at medical imaging software developer ISG Technologies (now Cedara Software), where she served as director of marketing for platform products and multimodality workstations.

 

Dr, Wood received her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, School of Hygiene and Public Health. Her Ph.D. work combined quantifying three-dimensional lung structure with changes in lung function using high-resolution CT imaging. She also holds a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is considered an industry thought leader in the area of computer-aided detection and diagnosis.

 

Dr. Wood has been issued 6 patents, with multiple disclosures in the pipeline in the field of computer-aided detection and quantitative imaging, authored numerous book chapters, peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and served as an invited speaker at numerous conferences in the area of three-dimensional imaging of the thorax, quantitative imaging and computer-aided detection.

 

About VIDA Diagnostics

www.vidadiagnostics.com

VIDA provides quantitative pulmonary image analysis services and software to aid in the early detection, evaluation and treatment planning of pulmonary disease including COPD, lung cancer, and asthma. FDA cleared and CE certified, VIDA's analysis methodology has been successfully validated in multiple academic, pulmonary device, and pharmaceutical trials. VIDA’s services use objective evaluation to aid the physician in determining existence, type and extent of disease, precision in procedural planning, and predicting therapeutic response using imaging surrogates to analyze disease.

 

VIDA’s go to market strategy is a per procedure service model, providing analysis services and directly targeting pulmonary clinicians with a more informative decision making process for the evaluation of patient and their disease. VIDA partners with marquis technology and distribution partners like Olympus and Covidien for companion diagnoses and therapeutic planning.


Healthcare

Diagnostics

 

VIDA Diagnostics

2500 Crosspark Road
W150 BioVentures Center
Coralville, IA 52241
1-855-900-8432

www.vidadiagnostics.com

 

 


 

Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published –  July 29, 2013

 

CEOCFO: Dr. Wood, would you please explain what you do at VIDA Diagnostics?

Dr. Wood: We are a company whose mission is to transform the management of patients with lung disease from an intuitive based process to an objective and evidence based approach, leading to diagnosis that is more precise and therapies that are more targeted.

 

CEOCFO: How will you be accomplishing this?

Dr. Wood: Using imaging surrogates, we are establishing the existence, severity, and progression of lung disease. Our business model is to consistently reproduce these metrics, and we do that by using a quality-controlled environment. We are progressing to a predictive evaluation of a patient and their likelihood of responding to a therapy. We sell quantitative imaging as a service. Imaging and information come into our core lab, we process that information, and we generate a structured report for the clinical site, allowing the clinician to make more informed patient decisions.

 

CEOCFO: Has this concept been tried previously, are others currently trying it, or is it new to VIDA?

Dr. Wood: It is both. The newness of it is that we are focused exclusively on the management of patients with pulmonary disease, and we work with partners to use these metrics in order to establish imaging links between the success or failure of a diagnostic test or therapy. The concepts of using a service model have been tried in a more generalized diagnostic imaging in radiology practices.  In this way, we can take advantage of a tried technology base, but customize and focus on a specific and growing class of diseases. Companies such as Virtual Radiologic offsite image evaluation from a standard radiology site, but it has not been as focused clinically and specifically on lung disease.

 

CEOCFO: Why is lung disease a good choice for your business model?

Dr. Wood: There are a couple of reasons. First, lung disease is a large and growing public health disorder. COPD is the only major disease state whose mortality is still on the rise in the US, and it is still being diagnosed and treated by very rudimentary methods. Our mission is to change that. There is a high impact and high cost to the public health, and the mechanisms by which we diagnose and treat patients with lung disease have not moved the dial as rapidly as the public health disorder is growing. Second, there are a number of pulmonary devices now in clinical trials and poised to enter the US market. We are working with our industry partners to more objectively and less invasively target patient populations, plan procedures and measure treatment response, for example in minimally invasive reduction of lung volume in patients with emphysema.

 

CEOCFO: Is the portion of the medical community that should be interested in VIDA aware of who you are and what you do?

Dr. Wood: We have excellent strategic partnerships, both industrial and clinical. Throughout our history, we have been working with strong partners using devices or pharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of patients with lung disease. Our most notable industry partnerships are with our strong partnerships with Olympus, Covidien and Grifols Pharmaceuticals and we have a cadre of excellent clinical thought leaders that guide clinical acceptance. VIDA’s imaging-based approach provides higher levels of precision, leading to more targeted, personalized patient options. Our next challenge is to offer VIDA services to the larger clinical market. Our strategic distribution partnerships with Covidien and Olympus are an important communication mechanism and enabler of that larger market.

 

CEOCFO: Would you tell us about the most challenging part of the analytics?

Dr. Wood: The biggest challenge has been the patience in developing the clinical data and validation to support our approach. Many of our proof statements are based on outcomes from large-scale clinical or academic trials often coupled with a medical device or pharmaceutical. To take diagnostic tests or therapies through that process takes time. Our models of the future are based on predicting how patients respond to therapies and refining those models require lots of clinical evidence.

 

CEOCFO: Would you tell us the span of your geographic reach?

Dr. Wood: We have customers in the US and worldwide. We have regulatory approvals in the US, EEA, and Canada. Clinically, we are distributing in those areas, but our research relationships span continents including Asia, Australia, and South America.

 

CEOCFO: Are there areas you would like to be more involved in?

Dr. Wood: I think the challenge of the medical device arena has been the latency of getting devices approved in the US versus Europe. Many of our partners are commercializing in Europe, but are going through clinical trials in the US. We have a regulatory approval in the US, but many times, we are selling as a companion diagnostic or a therapeutic to a yet to be approved device. We would like to be able to incorporate our approach more broadly with lung disease in the US.

 

CEOCFO: Would you tell us what personally attracted you to the company and made you decide to take it over as CEO?

Dr. Wood: I have a unique background. I was trained as a graduate student with a PhD in the area of quantitative pulmonary imaging, and from my PhD I went into the industry. I have been very close to many evolving and innovative clinical technologies and bringing those to market, including applications for lung disease. I have taken a scientific and technical background and incorporated my industry knowledge of bringing innovative clinical technologies to market. It is the perfect storm for me to be able to integrate these facets of my background at a time when the importance of lung disease is so challenging economically and clinically.

 

CEOCFO: Would you tell us a little more about your relationship with Covidien, and how meaningful it is for your company?

Dr. Wood: Any time that you have a strategic partner like Covidien recognizing our leadership position in a growth market, it is important. Covidien is strategically focused in managing and improving the outcomes of patients with lung disease. They have made a recent acquisition of superDimension, to strengthen their position in the pulmonary device space. The joint strategy is to improve outcomes for patients with lung disease and use more powerful, minimally invasive, and more informative approaches to target diagnostic tests and treatment options. Covidien markets and distributes VIDA’s imaging services to offer a less invasive, less costly, and more tolerable opportunity for lung disease patients.

 

CEOCFO: Would you tell us what is ahead for the company in general?

Dr. Wood: Innovative pulmonary procedures are entering the market and guided by imaging technologies. We are changing the practice of pulmonology, emerging from a subjective and intuitive approach to an objective and quantitative one. The biggest turning point for VIDA is we are incorporating these methodologies and techniques clinically to patients with lung disease as opposed to pre-clinically in clinical trials. We need to push clinical acceptance and practice guidelines for more targeted options for patients with lung disease. Our strategic partnerships with both Covidien and Olympus are going to be critical in the next steps for VIDA.

 

CEOCFO: Why should people in the business and investment community pay attention to VIDA?

Dr. Wood: We are laser focused on evaluating patients with lung disease. It is a large and growing public health disorder with rudimentary current techniques for evaluation in comparison to other disease classes. With VIDA and our excellent strategic partners, we are changing pulmonology into an objective, and evidence-based approach, providing more precise and accurate, less invasive and less costly options for patients with lung disease.

disclaimers

Any reproduction or further distribution of this article without the express written consent of CEOCFOinterviews.com is prohibited.

 

“Using imaging surrogates, we are establishing the existence, severity, and progression of lung disease. Our business model is to consistently reproduce these metrics, and we do that by using a quality-controlled environment. We are progressing to a predictive evaluation of a patient and their likelihood of responding to a therapy.”- Susan Wood

 

Pulmonary Image Analysis Services, Software, VIDA Diagnostics, CEO Interviews 2013, Medical Diagnostics Companies, Early Detection, Evaluation, Treatment Planning of Pulmonary Disease, COPD, Lung Cancer, Asthma, Recent CEO Interviews, Medical Diagnostics Stock, Healthcare Stocks, use objective evaluation to aid physicians in determining existence, type, extent of disease, precision in procedural planning, predicting therapeutic response using imaging surrogates to analyze disease, VIDA Diagnostics Press Releases, News, Companies looking for venture capital, Angel Investors, private companies looking for investors, healthcare companies seeking investors, medical diagnostics companies needing investment capital

ceocfointerviews.com does not purchase or make
recommendation on stocks based on the interviews published.