A vascular surgeon was able to diagnose his own cancer while testing the Butterfly Network’s Butterfly iQ ultrasound-on-a-chip device, according to a report from USA Today.
After experiencing some throat discomfort Dr. John Martin self-tested the device, designed to send images to and operate in conjunction with Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) iPhones, and found a mass that he thought looked cancerous, according to the report.
The mass turned out to be squamous cell cancer which Martin has since received treatment for, including surgery and radiation therapy.
“I felt something funny in my neck, connected the probe to my phone, did an ultrasound, and there it was: My tumor,” Martin said, according to USA Today.
The Butterfly iQ device won FDA 510(k) clearance earlier this month with 13 clinical indications, which the Guilford, Conn.-based company touts as the “broadest every for a single ultrasound transducer.”
Butterfly said its device consists of a single wide-band, 2D matrix array with thousands of microelectromechanical systems overlaid on an integrated circuit.
The company touted that the cost of the device was significantly lower than existing technology, saying it could reduce costs between 10 to 100 times.
