Omnyx story in local Pittsburgh publication, adding 15 employees this year

"Years of peering at  glass slides in microscopes will finally join the digital age with technology being developed by North Side’s Omnyx LLC.

Omnyx plans to hire 15 people this year in anticipation of its medical imaging platform that will digitize tissue samples. The last frontier of digital medical technology, digitized tissue software technology is expected to roll out in 2010.

Omnyx, a 9-month-old partnership of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and GE  Healthcare, currently employs 40 people in three offices including 25 in Pittsburgh. 

Digitized tissue samples have always posed a challenge because the resolution and the file-size needed is extraordinary, explains Tony Melanson, vice president of Strategy and Marketing.

“We’re very fortunate at Omnyx to have unprecedented access to clinical experts who will make our product a success,” he adds. “You never want to go into an innovation challenge without strong engineers and the partnership gives us great access to clinical research at UPMC and the technology that comes out of GE’s global research center.”

Omnyx also works with Carnegie Mellon University through the Human Computer Interaction Program, which is collaborating on aspects of the pathology workflow to digital.

The new technology will eliminate the painstaking physical process of moving slides around and increase efficiency and speed, opening up a whole new world of diagnostic opportunities. The quality of diagnosis will vastly improve as a result."