CompuCyte Corporation Receives $2 Million in Equity Financing, Announces Pathfinder(TM) Product Expansion

Strategic Insights -

CompuCyte Corporation, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of advanced information technology products for medical laboratories, has received $2 million in equity financing from American Healthcare Systems, a $36 billion national healthcare alliance. This investment brings the total amount invested in CompuCyte to $8.6 million, with $2.3 million coming from non-equity funding from Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The company has also announced that its Pathfinder(TM) product, a device aimed at ensuring reliable test results from microscopic examination of specimens such as Pap smears, is being used by American Healthcare Systems' Milwaukee-based Aurora Health Care system at three sites. The use of Pathfinder comes in the wake of national attention over "reckless homicide" charges brought against a Milwaukee company whose lab technologist allegedly misread Pap smears that led to the deaths of two Wisconsin women.

Key Takeaways:

  • CompuCyte Corporation has received $2.0 million in equity financing from American Healthcare Systems, a $36 billion national healthcare alliance, bringing the total investment in the company to $8.6 million.
  • The Pathfinder product, which attaches to a lab technologist's microscope and displays all areas of a Pap smear slide that have been examined, is being used by Aurora Health Care system at three sites.
  • The product is designed to avoid potentially fatal mistakes that may result from incomplete and/or inadequate screening of Pap smears.
  • Pathfinder automatically calculates the elapsed time of screening, percentage of slide covered, and amount of overlapped screening, providing quality assurance standards for laboratory supervisors.
  • CompuCyte Corporation is testing Pathfinder at other major medical centers nationally, including Boston's Harvard Community Health Plan and Brigham & Women's Hospital, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in New York.

Statistics:

  • 50 million annual Pap smears are manually screened by cytotechnologists in the United States.
  • 50,000 to 300,000 cervical cells are present in a typical Pap smear.
  • 2 million dollars is the amount invested by American Healthcare Systems in CompuCyte Corporation through equity financing.
  • 8.6 million dollars is the total amount invested in CompuCyte Corporation to date.
  • 2.3 million dollars is the non-equity funding received from Olympus Optical Co., Ltd., and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Sources:

  • CompuCyte Corporation press release, July 25, 1995
  • American Healthcare Systems
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)