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IPASC
IPASC formed at the 2018 SPIE Photonics West conference when a working group of researchers — led by Sarah Bohndiek of the University of Cambridge and Ben Cox...
IPASC
IPASC formed at the 2018 SPIE Photonics West conference when a working group of researchers — led by Sarah Bohndiek of the University of Cambridge and Ben Cox of University College London — recognized that photoacoustic imaging would never cross the chasm from benchtop to bedside without agreed-upon calibration standards. The consortium incorporated in Brazil but operates as a distributed global network. Its founding thesis: academic labs and commercial device developers were generating non-comparable results because no one had defined what a reproducible photoacoustic measurement looks like. The resulting workstreams span phantom design, data management, and standardized test methods. The consortium does not deploy capital in the traditional sense. Its resources take the form of coordinated multi-institutional research programs, open-source data formats, and consensus standards documents that downstream medical-device regulators — including FDA reviewers — can reference. Industry partners PreXion and iThera Medical provide funding grants and equipment access. Working group leads like Janek Gröhl drive the data-management track, specifying file structures that let one lab's results be meaningfully compared with another's. The geographic footprint skews toward UK and European labs, with growing participation from Japanese and North American research groups. IPASC's structural heft comes from its composition: academic principal investigators operate alongside corporate engineers on equal footing within technical working groups. In September 2023 the consortium released an updated version of its phantom design specifications, standardizing the tissue-mimicking materials used to calibrate photoacoustic devices across manufacturers. PreXion and iThera Medical personnel sit on the Industry Board but do not control the standards output — governance is deliberately walled off to maintain pre-competitive integrity. The consortium is structurally closer to a standards-development organization than to a pension fund or family office. The Brazil domicile is an administrative anchor; substantive technical work occurs at member institutions. IPASC's durable value proposition is regulatory-pathway acceleration: a device maker who demonstrates compliance with IPASC standards has a defined technical argument to present to notified bodies and regulators, which no single manufacturer could credibly create alone.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Year founded
2018
Location
Region
Latin America
Country
Brazil
City
Cacador
Corporate office
Cacador, Brazil
Principals
Sarah E. Bohndiek
Founder, Lead
Ben T. Cox
Lead
Janek Gröhl
Data Management Working Group Lead
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs the technical standards development at IPASC?
The consortium operates through peer-led working groups. Sarah Bohndiek and Ben Cox, both professors at major UK research universities, provide overall scientific leadership. Janek Gröhl leads the Data Management working group, which defines the file formats and metadata conventions that the consortium publishes as open standards. Industry partners like PreXion and iThera Medical contribute engineers to working groups but do not chair them, per the consortium's governance model.
How does IPASC interact with medical-device regulators?
IPASC publishes consensus standards documents — covering phantom designs, test methods, and data-reporting formats — that regulators can reference when evaluating photoacoustic device submissions. The consortium does not issue certifications itself. Its output is designed to give FDA reviewers, notified bodies, and other regulators a common technical baseline, which individual device developers cite in their premarket applications.
What is the relationship between IPASC and iThera Medical?
iThera Medical, a German photoacoustic device manufacturer, holds a seat on IPASC's Industry Board and provides non-financial support and employment for some consortium members. The Industry Board contributes funding and practical engineering input, but the voting governance that approves standards is separated from commercial control to maintain the consortium's pre-competitive status.
Is IPASC a funding body or a standards organization?
IPASC does not function as a grantmaker or investment vehicle. It coordinates multi-institutional research on standardized measurement methods and distributes open-source resources — including data formats and phantom specifications. The actual research funding lives with the member labs and their respective institutional grants. IPASC's output is technical consensus, not capital.
Which sectors does IPASC explicitly work to support?
All of the consortium's work targets the photoacoustic imaging segment within digital health and medical technology. Its standards apply to preclinical research applications and clinical diagnostic device development. The consortium does not work on unrelated imaging modalities such as MRI, ultrasound, or conventional optical imaging.
How does IPASC source members and technical contributors?
The consortium surfaces new members through academic conferences — the founding working group coalesced at SPIE Photonics West — and through the existing professional networks of its university-based leads. Device manufacturers join through the Industry Board track, which requires demonstrated commercial engagement with photoacoustic imaging. Researcher members typically join after publishing work that cites IPASC standards or phantom designs.
What structural mechanism ensures IPASC's standards are actually adopted?
Adoption is voluntary, but IPASC's structural advantage is that major photoacoustic device manufacturers already participate. A standard built with input from iThera Medical and PreXion engineers is more likely to appear in those firms' product documentation. Separately, academic journals increasingly expect authors to report IPASC-standardized measurements, which creates a publication-compliance feedback loop that pulls the broader research community toward adoption.
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