As part of the Rubina™ online product launch, KARL STORZ President and CEO Charlie Wilhelm traces the history of endosurgical imaging, leading up to the development of this advanced 4K NIR/ICG system.
you know, we were talking about the Rubina system a couple of weeks ago, and one of things that stood out in that conversation was the evolution of imaging, how it's changed not only in your career but also here at Carl stores and how all of this kind of gets put together and putting our patients first. So without further ado, I'd like to give the stage to you so you could tell us a little about your stories and how things have gone t j. To date myself. Some of the some of the first image ing products that were brought into a no are as big in size is the cameras they're using here today for for this launch, followed by tube cameras which were still very, very large and heavy and and hard to adapt Thio telescopes and and so on. But they were opening up the inside of the body and pulling images out for clinical procedures. And, you know, the the evolution of resolution, the evolution of digital and so on. It's just been a ah story, a continuum of advancements that allow physicians to do some clinicians to do some amazing work on patient from from advanced technology to advanced procedures, thio driving safety and and improved outcomes. So what we're about to talk about is is again enhancements and kind of the next step in the ongoing evolution of imaging before I get too deep into today's program. Two Acknowledgments First of all, 2020 has been an incredibly challenging year, and Carl Starts is in the health care arena, and I just want to really acknowledge the frontline caregivers. It's been, uh, unprecedented year, Hopefully, uh, once in a lifetime year, so to speak, on the frontline caregivers, the emergency medical technicians and really everybody behind the caregivers, you all our heroes. You've been doing an amazing job. Obviously it's not over yet, but ah, thank you from everybody. For all of your efforts, a zit relates to coral starts were an essential business. To this end, our airway product has been used in treating Cove in 19 patients. We've maintained our essential business status. We've kept manufacturing facilities open a swell a czar logistics centers. To that end, we've been able Thio adhere to our service level agreements with the clinicians. So, uh, I want to thank the coral starts employees throughout the world for safely keeping our business up and running and in support of the caregivers. 2020 As I said, Crazy Year. But it's a milestone year for coral starts. So in 1945 coral starts and humble instrument maker actually incorporated and created the company Coral stores, starting with a small workshop and again, uh, making instrumentation Fast forward. 75 years, three generations of coral starts, family entrepreneurial leadership. And today you have a company. Ah, global leader. Uh, certainly recognized for instrumentation, but renowned for our customer Centris it, er clinical care focus our our patient focus a zwelling, as you know, an architectural full of technology and digital solutions from which the caregivers can choose from. So, uh, great story. Uh, congratulations to the Coral Stores family. And certainly congratulations to all coral starts employees on 75 year anniversary. And I think there's a lot more to that story that Z coming up in the future. So why am I here today? We're here to talk with T. J and other colleagues about the, uh, image one s rubina system. This is really an enhancement. The rubina is an enhancement to the image one architecture, Er And when we talk about the enhancements, uh, from a clinical perspective, uh, it's taking white light image ing to a new level, uh, in the sense of this additive technology for enhanced visualization so clinicians could see anatomy and other indications that they could not see previously. So ah, terrific enhancement. When you talk about technology, uh, it scares people. And if you are a financial buyer out there, it scares people. The reality is the image one s architectures is not obsolete. ID. This is an enhancement on if you're new to coral store, it's It's a modular approach, a configurable approach. So you Onley need to acquire what your use cases so very, very cost effective approach. So if I use the quadruple aim kind of as a as a backdrop, you're impacting patient, you're impacting patient care. You're impacting the clinical procedure itself. You're impacting the clinical caregiver and you're doing it in a very cost effective way. So modularity the ability toe configure depending upon your use case, your ability to standardize on one company think one and the scale ability of the architectural allows you to goto for instance, baseline a basic physician office outpatient surgery center all the way through to the impatient or environment but standardized on one company across that continuum of care. So very, very powerful from a clinical perspective, from an asset management perspective from a total cost of ownership perspective. Before we go any further, I'm gonna introduce a couple of videos to you just to talk about the kind of combination of clinical expertise, the coral stores, hardware and software, our technology and the impact that it has on patient care. A couple of patients stories M. I s helped to change my mission. My mission was now to challenge those medical regulations in order to keep flying and literally after seven months of hell. The Air Force surgeon general said if I underwent regular testing for one year post surgery, they would consider granting me full of flight status. So surgery was performed March 23rd, 2012 to what I'm told was textbook. The tumor was completely removed and I complied with the Air Force requests one week shy of 12 months. The regulations were rewritten. I had my first flight and I'm back to plate status. E woke up from that surgery Completely pain free completely. I don't mean a little bit. I don't mean slightly. I mean, 1000% free pain free. Going from where I waas to that moment was like a miracle for me. It waas It was the miracle of m I s Carl starts. Dr. Peter Witt changed my entire life. It was like I said, a miracle. I can't thank you guys enough for what you did for me. Dr Peter Witt. Carl starts everything. You guys do matters because there's real people out in the world like me that it changes their entire life. I can do everything I used to be able to do. I could play softball again. I can run again. I can do all sorts of things. My motto was Fight on. I know it may sound cliche. Yes, I'm a USC guy. But final through all obstacles, through all the turmoil through all the hurdles in life through all the bad sale days through all the bad sale months $5.4 million final fight on and know that are not on Lee. Is this product a product? It's a way of life. It's a way of life. How do I know? Because you saved my life. I was able Thio transfer my care to Vanderbilt University with the urology group there. Dr. Sam Chang was who I decided Thio seek a second opinion with and I was so glad I did. He was an amazing doctor. A person just immediately made me feel better about the situation and confident in him as a surgeon and a doctor. And he used blue light sista Skopje with Cece few. And so really, I felt no downside to using the technology and all upside, which was that my doctor could see everything through the procedure that he needed Thio and showed us pictures that he, after the surgery, to really show how it illuminated the cancer cells, what he was able to take out and in since then, you know, seeing pictures where it's completely clear versus where it waas years ago,
