Olympus America Acquires Bacus Labs

(Melville, NY, USA), a precision technology company that designs imaging systems for use in healthcare and life sciences, has acquired privately-owned Bacus Laboratories, Inc. (BLI, Lombard, IL, USA). BLI will retain its name, and all employees will retain their positions. Licenses and other business relationships will remain mostly unaffected. Financial details were not disclosed.

By securing BLI's patents and capabilities as part of the transaction, Olympus has gained access to two key technologies, virtual microscope slide and telemedicine, enabling the company to offer a one-step solution to companies seeking a virtual microscope slide system. Virtual slides allow professionals to review biopsies and other pathology images without handling traditional glass slides. Using telemedicine, doctors can share highly detailed microscope slide images over the internet for long-distance consultation.

Among the products to be sold by the combined company is the Bliss system, designed for a single workstation, which is a combination of an Olympus microscope with BLI software. BLI also provides virtual microscope slides and internet software for medical education.

More than 60% of professional decisions made by physicians are influenced by medical testing. Medical slides contain so much high-resolution data that it can take thousands of typical digital pictures to reproduce all the data in one image, and require powerful computers to store the data. The combination of Olympus and BLI technologies can help streamline the process, save substantial expense, and enhance patient care.

Dr, Stephen S. Tang, group vice president and general manager of Life Science, Olympus America, said "Being able to digitize slides and share analysis, and attach images to a patient's file is the step we have been waiting for. It paves the way to more informed decisions by physicians, better-served patients, and enhanced teaching and training.”





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