Melbourne-based OCT manufacturer Cylite has appointed accomplished medical device industry figure Ms Kylee Hall to its executive team as it prepares to bring its new system to market.
Hall, who is now the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, will play a crucial role for Cylite over the next five years as it seeks regulatory approval for its hyperparallel optical coherence tomography (HP-OCT) system in Europe and Australia.
The Australian-made OCT instrument is said to differ from competing models by offering industry-leading A-scan speeds. It also captures volume data to provide accurate analytics for corneal and refractive specialists.
A key feature of the fourth generation OCT platform is its ability to overcome the eye-motion limitations during scanning, often the Achilles heel of current devices developed by well-established manufacturers.
Hall, a medical device industry expert, brings more than 13 years of senior leadership in sales, marketing and corporate management and 20 years of experience in Australia’s ophthalmic sector.
She was previously a surgical business manager for Device Technologies and the medical division manager for Zeiss, responsible for overall management of the Australian and New Zealand medical business group as an autonomous profit centre.
“I am delighted to welcome Kylee to the Cylite executive team,” Cylite CEO Dr Steve Frisken, said. “I am confident that her breadth of experience in the medical industry in both surgical and diagnostic instruments will play a key role in driving our entry into the diagnostic market.
“Kylee’s in-depth knowledge of the ophthalmic diagnostics business will significantly strengthen our team as we launch our fourth Generation OCT system, HP-OCT, into the market.”
Cylite is currently focused on pursuing European regulatory approval. If successful, it will then make a submission to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Hall said opportunities to join a company at the market introduction stage – and help direct the future commercialisation phase globally – did not emerge often.
“It is even more rare for this to be with an Australian start-up in the ophthalmic diagnostic field.” she said.
“I have tremendous respect for the founding team, who have incorporated photonics knowledge from the telecommunications industry into the medical technology field.
“They have developed an impressive piece of diagnostic ophthalmic equipment that solves so many of the issues faced with current offerings”. Sometimes you have to approach a challenge with a different mindset to succeed, and this is exactly what they have done.”
