Using a tiny camera — just one-third of a millimetre in diameter — doctors at The Ottawa Hospital diagnosed and treated a patient suffering from multiple strokes.
Invented by Vena Medical, a company co-founded by two Waterloo Engineering alumni Michael Phillips and Phillip Cooper (both BASc ’17, mechanical engineering), the MicroAngioscope™ camera can pinpoint the cause of a stroke attack and treat the patient in just one hour.
“What our camera does is allow doctors to see exactly what’s going on inside a blood vessel, providing information they’ve never had before,” said, Phillips, CEO and co-founder of Vena Medical.
He said doctors are unable to determine the cause of a stroke for about one-third of patients who experience multiple strokes. Physicians prefer to use X-ray technology to diagnose, navigate and treat patients who suffer from a stroke.
“Using an X-ray is like using GPS to navigate, but having a camera is like seeing through a window,” Phillips said.
Located in Kitchener, Ontario, Vena Medical has received patents worldwide for their innovative technology and the founders have big plans for future iterations of their MicroAngioscope™ device.
Go to A breakthrough treatment for stroke patients for the full story.