By James Sopper, Chief Technical Officer at Isobar Compression
Our foundation is in innovation, bringing together 3D imaging with leading textile manufacturing to create our custom-fit Isobar Compression garments. We offer a premium experience to our customers and patients – premium service through in-person scanning at their home, office or preferred clinic to premium quality in manufacturing.
It’s important that we keep that premium service and innovation fresh, so my job is to ensure our imaging and production processes are constantly refined. Following feedback from our customers and clinical partners we’re currently trialling a new scanning technology to broaden access to our compression technology.
Our existing scanner works well in clinic for able-bodied people and for lower leg compression. But how can we extend that to include scanning in the home and even self scanning whereby a friend or family member of the patient can obtain the scan without any specialist training or equipment?
Plus, a lot of elite sports teams we work with wanted full leg scanning for thigh-length, custom-fit compression so we needed to change the range of the scans to capture an image of the whole leg.
When making these refinements, we’ve also managed to cut down the time taken and cost of processing the scans. When I first started working for Isobar, the scanning process would take five minutes for each leg whereas now both legs can be scanned at the same time in less than 10 seconds. Following extensive validation and verification and field trials, we hope to see this exciting new technology deployed by the end of this year.
My background is in aeronautical engineering, designing and building pressure measurement systems for racing yachts and producing medical-grade devices where I have learned about quality control, regulations and traceability of parts. With Isobar Compression, I enjoy that such a simple piece of equipment can make such a difference to quality of life for so many people. A lot of medical devices for scanning cost millions of pounds, yet we can relatively cheaply make a real difference through our technology. We could save the NHS millions of pounds and have a real impact on self-care, which is an exciting proposition for us.