https://www.epo.org/en/news-events/press-centre/press-release/2017/451465

Medical imaging with optical coherence tomography (OCT): James G. Fujimoto, Eric A. Swanson and Robert Huber receive European Inventor Award 2017

15.06.2017

in Press release

US engineers and German physicist recognised for developing new medical imaging technology
Now standard of care for diagnosing eye diseases such as glaucoma: over 30 million OCT scans performed every year
International research team distinguished at award ceremony in Venice
EPO President Benoît Battistelli: "Their invention has led to improved understanding of diseases, new treatments, and improved quality of life for millions of people."

Venice/Munich, 15 June 2017 - The European Patent Office (EPO) honoured US engineers James G. Fujimoto and Eric A. Swanson, and German physicist Robert Huber with the 2017 European Inventor Award for the development of optical coherence tomography (OCT). OCT is the first technology to deliver real-time images of human tissue at microscopic clarity, without the need for invasive probing or surgical biopsies. It has become a world standard used in millions of exams per year and allows early detection of serious eye diseases such as glaucoma, but also cancer and heart disease. The team was distinguished in the "Non-EPO countries" category, one of five categories of the European Inventor Award, at a ceremony held today in Venice.

"Thanks to this team, doctors can now look at living tissue in new ways, to diagnose eye disease, cancer, and other serious illnesses faster and more accurately," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli. "OCT procedures have led to improved understanding of diseases, new treatments and therapeutic tools, and improved quality of life for millions of patients. Their story is also an impressive example of how patented inventions can help create and drive an entire business segment."

The award ceremony at the Arsenale di Venezia was attended by some 600 guests from the areas of politics, business, intellectual property, science and academia, and opened by the EPO President together with Carlo Calenda, Italy's Minister of Economic Development.

The European Inventor Award, now in its 12th year, is presented annually by the EPO to distinguish outstanding inventors from Europe and around the world who have made an exceptional contribution to social development, technological progress and economic growth. The winners were chosen by an independent international jury from a pool of more than 450 individuals and teams of inventors put forward for this year's award.

Laser-focused on innovation

OCT works on a principle similar to ultrasound, except that it measures the "echo" time delay of light beams instead of sound waves. Launched in 1993 as a clinical prototype, OCT revolutionised the standard of care in ophthalmology and was welcomed as a transformative medical technology. The multidisciplinary team's invention, for which they filed more than 50 patents during development, has also had a major economic impact. "Today the [OCT] market is approaching a billion dollars per year. There are over 16 000 high-quality jobs and it's saved billions of dollars in unnecessary healthcare expenditure," says Eric Swanson. With the help of patents, numerous European companies, such as Carl Zeiss, Heidelberg Engineering and Michelson Diagnostics have commercialised OCT technology and become major players in the industry.

All three inventors have leveraged their intellectual property into successful businesses, including the world's first OCT companies, Advanced Ophthalmic Diagnostics (acquired by Carl Zeiss Meditec) and LightLab Imaging (now owned by Abbott), both of which were co-founded by Fujimoto and Swanson, and Germany-based Optores GmbH (co-founded by Huber). "Today, around 50 companies develop OCT systems," says Robert Huber. Approximately 75% of them originated as start-ups."

The inventors continue to advance OCT. Fujimoto trains a new generation of OCT engineers as a principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Fellow MIT alumnus and business partner Swanson serves in technical roles at OCT companies, while Huber is creating ultra-fast lasers as a professor at the University of Lübeck's Institute for Biomedical Optics.

What originally started as a diagnostic tool for eye diseases - with about 30 million scans now performed worldwide every year - has since brought high-resolution to several other medical fields, including cardiology, endoscopy, surgical guidance and dermatology, with over 50 000 systems installed worldwide. OCT's transformative impact is even more significant considering that none of the three award-winning inventors are medical professionals. "I am not a doctor, I am not on the front line of helping people. But even as an engineer it is possible to do things that have a positive impact," says James Fujimoto.

Media materials for James Fujimoto, Eric Swanson and Robert Huber

Short video about the inventor (YouTube)
Download broadcast-quality (HD) videos: English dub, B-roll and cleanfeed (EPO Media Centre)
More video and photo material
Read more about the inventor
View the patents: EP0883793, EP0981733, EP1839375

Note to editors: availability of AV and photo materials on 15 June 2017

Print-quality photos from the award ceremony in Venice will be successively made available from 11.30 CET onwards in the EPO Media Centre.

The EPO offers licence and cost-free audio-visual material of the ceremony and winners available in HD and SD quality in the EPO Media Centre starting at 15.30 CET.