Proving the Mini C-Arm Concept – The Mayo Clinic Challenge
An excerpted historical account detailing how the Mayo Clinic validated the Mini C-arm concept, enabling HealthMate, Inc.'s successful IPO.
Clinical Milestones
Part 1 of 2
Table of Contents
By Lo I. Yin, Ph.D., and Larry Grossman This content of this white paper was originally co-authored by Lo I. Yin, Ph.D., and Larry Grossman to introduce Mini C-arm technology to the investment community prior to HealthMate, Inc.’s IPO in 1982.
Proving the Mini C-arm Concept – The Mayo Clinic Challenge
HealthMate, Inc. needed $3.5 million to set up a manufacturing facility and begin marketing the new Fluoroscan. Company founder Larry Grossman presented the opportunity to numerous banks, investment bankers and angel investors before a New York City investment firm, Creative Securities, agreed to provide the $3.5 million in return for 25% of the company’s equity.
Creative Services arranged for Grossman to bring a prototype of the Fluoroscan to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, where a team of surgeons would use it in surgery for a day. If they liked the efficacy of the Mini C-arm technology, the underwriter would agree to take HealthMate, Inc. public with an IPO on the NASDAQ.
Mr. Grossman arrived at Mayo Clinic with the Fluoroscan. Before they would allow the surgical team to use it, the Mayo Clinic needed their diagnostic health physicist, Dr. Joel Gray, Ph.D. to approve the machine. Dr. Gray had his assistant bring in the radiation detection survey meter (a Geiger counter) and asked Grossman to turn on the machine. No radiation was detected. Dr. Gray requested a retest with a different meter. The result was the same. A third test with a more sensitive meter demonstrated that the radiation levels of the Fluoroscan were indeed 99% less than any other X-ray equipment at the clinic. After additional testing, Dr. Gray finally allowed the orthopedic surgeons to use the Fluoroscan in surgery.
The Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeons used the Fluoroscan in various surgeries that day. At the end of the day, the Mayo Clinic team agreed that the Fluoroscan had revolutionized extremity orthopedic surgery by enabling surgeons to ‘see inside’ a patient in real time. Surgeons could utilize K-wires to knit broken bones back together. K-wires are metal wires that can be drilled into bones and removed at a later date. The K-wires protrude from the arm and are easily removed once the bones have healed. Patients could heal with no scars and with no metal left inside of their bodies. The new procedure, which was later renamed ‘minimal incision surgery’, also took less than half of the time of the previous method.
The Mayo Clinic findings and testimony from the surgical team helped Grossman and Creative Securities complete a successful IPO for HealthMate, Inc. in 1985. The funds were utilized to set up the manufacturing, marketing and sales of the Fluoroscan, the first-ever Mini C-arm, which Grossman invented with the help of a team of NASA scientists and proof of concept provided by a Mayo Clinic surgical team.
