About Optasia Medical

Optasia makes software that facilitates the reading of x-rays for the management of musculoskeletal diseases. Our products are used in clinical trials and by physicians to identify and monitor patients who will benefit from treatment. With Optasia Medical's tools, medical images can be evaluated more rapidly, more accurately and more reproducibly.

Our Optasia^® platform has been designed to meet the evolving needs of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Optasia enables robust model-based vision solutions to automated medical image interpretation problems. With it, new applications can be developed rapidly for seamless integration into the clinical workflow.

Today, Optasia Medical is applying the Optasia platform to problems in musculoskeletal disease. More specifically, the analysis of X-ray images in the detection and monitoring of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Optasia Medical technology provides advanced clinical model-based vision solutions for clients worldwide.

Leadership, Combining Vision and Expertise

When you choose to integrate Optasia in your development, research or treatment process, you can feel confident knowing that you're teaming with many of the world's leading experts. Optasia Medical's leadership has unparalleled experience in the research and innovation of medical imaging.

Peter Steiger PhD
Chief Executive Officer

Prior to joining Optasia Medical, Peter Steiger served 6 years as President and CEO of Synarc, Inc., a privately held company, and the world's largest dedicated provider of centralized imaging and molecular marker services for clinical trials. Peter holds a MS degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. Peter spent 5 years at the University of California in San Francisco, where he published numerous articles and then moved to industry to work for 9 years as Chief Scientist at the medical device manufacturer Hologic.

Alan Brett PhD
Chief Technical Officer

Alan Brett is a co-founder and was previously Technical Services Director of Image Metrics, Ltd. Alan holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Physics and an MSc in Applied Radiation Physics from Birmingham University. He was awarded his PhD degree in Medical Image Analysis from University College London, where he worked on the novel use of 3D ultrasound technology for foetal monitoring. For six years, he held an Associate position at the University of Manchester, where he carried out research into software tools for automated medical image analysis in collaboration with IBM and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. With the spin-out of Optasia Medical from Image Metrics in 2006, Alan assumed the position of Chief Technical Officer.

Anthony Holmes PhD
VP Technical Services

Anthony Holmes transferred to Optasia Medical from Image Metrics Ltd. Prior to joining Optasia Medical Ltd, Anthony Holmes spent four years working on Computer Aided Detection research in mammography at the University of Manchester for which he was awarded his PhD degree in computer vision. Prior to his doctoral research, he received his MRes in Molecular Engineering for his research into liquid crystals, sponsored by QinetiQ (formerly DERA). He also holds a BSc (Hons European) in Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Leeds.

Jane Haslam PhD
VP Research & Development

Prior to joining Optasia Medical, Jane Haslam worked for four years for a small technology-based start-up company: 3dMD. At 3dMD she managed the Medical Applications Development team and led the software development for the company's first FDA-compliant product. Prior to that, she worked as a computer vision researcher at Canon's European Research lab. She was awarded a PhD in model-based computer vision from Manchester University, and holds a BA in Physics and Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge.

Tony Lacey PhD
VP Engineering

Tony joined Optasia Medical in 2006 after three years as a Senior Imaging Informatics Specialist with AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals UK. At AstraZeneca, Tony was responsible for pre-clinical and clinical imaging studies, leading the development and deployment of new imaging bio-markers in MRI, CT and X-Ray. He led several academic collaborations both in the UK and US. Prior to this, Tony held a Research Fellowship within the Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering Division at the University of Manchester where he was responsible for a variety of clinical MRI and CT analysis projects. During this time, Tony also ran an open source medical imaging software development project funded by the EU, collaborated with industrial partners on industrial vision projects and published numerous articles. Tony holds a Ph.D. in Artificial Vision from the University of Sheffield, UK and a B.Eng. (1st Class Hons.) in Electronic Systems and Control Engineering.

Ranjeet Bhatia
Non-Executive Director

Prior to co-founding Saffron Hill Ventures, Ranjeet worked as Advisor to the Chairman of Loot Ltd. where he advised on e-commerce strategy and investment and in a venture capital capacity for Lord Rothschild, evaluating technology venture opportunities. While at Loot he worked closely with business partners and financiers to structure Loot's strategic and financial requirements in preparation for sale. Prior to Loot he worked in the consulting practice of Booz-Allen & Hamilton, and Dyncorp-Meridian. Ranjeet serves on the boards of Image Metrics Ltd, Fotochatter Inc, Marrone Organic Innovations Inc, Organic Bouquet Inc, and Coyuchi Inc. He holds an MBA from UCLA, an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University, and a BA from Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Jean Chaintreuil
Non-Executive Director

Dr Chaintreuil has a wealth of experience in the healthcare sector spanning twenty-three years encompassing a range of technical and commercial roles. For the past three, he has been the President and non-executive Chairman of D3A, a company dedicated to the development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and service of an X-Ray device measuring bone micro-architecture. Prior to establishing D3A, he was Vice President of European operations for Hologic's European operation, a US company specialising in women's health, medical imaging and a world leader in Bone Densitometry. He was given the position with the task of creating a European organisation with a combination of direct operations and distributor management. He received his doctor's degree in medicine from University of Montpellier, France and holds a number of patents and honorary awards in medicine. He has also held positions at Terumo Cardiovascular Systems Europe GMBH (President Europe), GE Medical Systems Europe (Manager Mammography and Mobile X-Ray Marketing and Sales) and Laboratories Servier, Paris, Tokyo (Development Director).

Louis Nisbet DSc PhD
Non-Executive Director

Louis was awarded a PhD in biochemistry and subsequently held senior management positions within major pharmaceutical companies such as Hoffmann-La Roche, Glaxo Group and SmithKline Beecham in the UK and the USA. In 1987, he founded and became CEO of Xenova plc, an emerging bio-pharmaceutical company, which listed on NASDAQ in 1994, and the London Stock Exchange in 1996. Since leaving Xenova in 1998, he has held directorships in a number of private companies operating in the health and bio-sciences field, including Chairman of Brax, which was sold to Aventis SA. Louis was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University of Strathclyde in 2000 and he was made Special Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Nottingham in 1994. Louis joined Sitka in June 1999 and is a Director of Sitka Health Fund VCT and Director of Private Equity, Noble Fund Managers. He is on the Boards of Amura Ltd, Altacor Ltd, Optasia Medical Ltd, OmniDental Sciences Ltd and The Acrobot Company Limited (a spin-out company of Imperial college).

Our management team and experts regularly contribute to major conference and journal publications. Request a list of recent reports here.