Imaging Sciences International today announced that Omid E. Kia, Ph.D. has joined the company as Chief Scientist and Director of Digital X-ray Development. One of the world's leading engineers in the field of digital image capture and processing, Dr. Kia will help Imaging Sciences accelerate delivery of next-generation digital dental X-ray systems to dental professionals everywhere.
Imaging Sciences' state-of-the-art advanced imaging technologies include the Panorex CMT(tm), i-CAT(tm) and the forthcoming Direct Digital Panorex CMT(tm). These market-leading imaging technologies provide dentists with educational and risk management tools that help them inform and treat patients, deliver more predictable outcomes, and provide superior in-office patient experiences.
Dr. Kia's first priority is accelerating development of Imaging Sciences' Direct Digital Panorex CMT(tm), now slated for general availability in June 2004. This would take the company's revolutionary complex motion tomography/panoramic unit into the digital realm. Providing virtually instant ultra-high-resolution digital images, Imaging Sciences' Digital Panorex CMT(tm) does away with film and chemical processing, and their associated complexity, supplies cost, space requirements, and patient treatment delays. A breakthrough design, the Digital Panorex CMT(tm) will combine digital pan and digital complex motion tomography technologies, allowing dental offices to purchase only one digital machine-instead of investing in both a pan and a tomography unit-to meet virtually all of their digital X-ray imaging needs.
Dr. Kia also will speed development and delivery of Imaging Sciences' other next-generation digital imaging products, including the company's upcoming Digital Panorex(tm) system. The Digital Panorex(tm) system would be an entry-level panoramic unit, which would provide all the advantages of digital technology.
Longer term, Dr. Kia will be working on digital image sensor technology and short-range cephalometric imaging. Overall, Dr. Kia will be driving Imaging Sciences' efforts to maintain its leadership position by designing new image sensors that bring higher resolution, higher sensitivity, and faster capture to market.
"Our goal is to improve the way dentists work," Dr. Kia says. "With digital technology, dentists can use imaging to their advantage. The paradigm is shifting, and dentists are seeing how valuable imaging is, dramatically increasing the predictability of procedures. Our mission is to provide dentists with easy-to-use tools; dentists shouldn't need a Ph.D. in computer science to make the best use of digital X-ray imaging."
Arun Singh, Vice President and Director of Advanced Technology at Imaging Sciences agrees and also points to distinct treatment advantages brought to bear by digital X-ray imaging: "With digital grayscale resolution and the tools for zooming and highlighting the areas of interest, we are going to give dentists a more complete picture and comprehensive diagnostic information, without distortion," Singh says. "The problem you have now with film imaging is that you only get one picture with finite information. With digital images, you can enhance and extract information that otherwise would have seemed non-existent."
Prior to his arrival at Imaging Sciences, Dr. Kia was president of Sigma Vision Inc., Rockville, Md., where he developed a proprietary digital X-ray image capturing system. He also developed a proprietary scan and capture system for a Computed Radiography system with an Ultra-High sensitivity and resolution characteristics. Additionally, he developed image processing algorithms for Cardiac/Angiography and Intra-Oral Xray imaging. Dr. Kia is also well known for developing a software architecture used to digitally generate, capture, and display high-resolution X-ray images.
Previous to that, Dr. Kia was Senior VP for Portis Inc., Reston, Va., where he headed application development and R&D (A complete copy of Dr. Kia's bio and resume is available upon request).
Dr. Kia has more than 15 years of industrial experience with more than five years in the medical arena. He has affiliations with the University of Maryland in College Park and University of Oulu in Finland. He has held positions of Chief Technical Officer and Chief Scientist/Senior VP in technologically leading companies. Dr. Kia has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Catholic University of America. Extensively published, with more than 25 papers to his credit, Dr. Kia's writings, including complete journal articles, have been featured in the prestigious IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.
