Overview

Guided Therapy Systems, Inc. initially was founded in 1994 as a research and development (R&D) company. It was founded by: Michael H. Slayton, Ph.D, and co-founded by Peter Barthe, Ph.D. In 2004, Guided Therapy Systems, LLC was created and the accelerator model was implemented.

During the succeeding years, GTS worked on a number of projects that included collaboration with government and corporate sponsors. From 2000 to 2003, GTS developed minimally invasive surgical oncology devices for Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a Johnson and Johnson Company (JNJ). Ethicon decided not to commercialize the products. “We substantially changed our direction immediately following that experience with JNJ,” says Brian O’Connor, former director of worldwide business development at Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., a Johnson and Johnson Company, and now co-founder, president and chief operating officer at GTS.

The first investigations of similar therapeutic ultrasonic technologies for non-invasive treatment, sometimes referred to as high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) were reported several decades ago. Subsequent HIFU products all experienced limited commercial success due to the complexity of the treatments, in which large and unwieldy external machines were used to treat tissue. The targeted tissue, often times several centimeters inside the body, is treated according to a complex protocol in which the applicator is moved on a robotic arm to cover a volume of tissue. In virtually all of the cases, those other devices use a separate stand-alone imaging capability, such as CT and MR to support the targeting and/or evaluation of the tissue prior to treatment.

“In contrast, we select product applications where we can incorporate the benefits of the HIFU-type technologies, but avoid the technological, regulatory and commercial hurdles associated with them,” says Dr. Slayton. (see GTS Unique Factors under Technology tab)

Patented see/treat devices developed by the GTS team are now are being sold to physicians and surgeons throughout the world, including Europe, Asia and the United States. The company also has developed, and is preparing to commercialize, devices for use by consumers at home.