Company challenges medical community to validate bladder tool

Verathon, Inc. (Bothell, WA) has issued a challenge to urology researchers: The company is offering $10,000 for the most practical and scientifically valid protocol to study the relationship of bladder wall mass and overactive bladder or BPH. The goal is to determine how bladder wall mass measurements can best be used in clinical practice.

The goal of the challenge is to maximize the company's BladderScan BVM 6500's clinical utility and significance as a diagnostic and treatment tool.

"Because measurement of bladder hypertrophy is quite labor intensive when performed with standard ultrasound instruments, it has not really entered clinical use to date," said CEO Gerald McMorrow. "The BVM 6500 allows this measurement to be taken in minutes without complex mathematical computations, without poorly fitted approximations, and without invasive instillations of known amounts of saline.

"It is Verathon's goal to enable rapid and easy evaluation of bladder hypertrophy. We believe that this may become central to evaluation of bladder outlet obstruction and overactive bladder conditions, as well as evaluation of therapy."