Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in men and women - responsible for more cancer-related deaths than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined. Lung cancer typically starts as a small nodule or tumor within the lungs. The key to improving survival and preventing deaths is early detection and diagnosis of these small lung nodules before they spread elsewhere in the body.

Our Solution

Here at Pulmera, we are focused on revolutionizing the field of bronchoscopic lung cancer diagnosis. We are developing a novel technology to help physicians easily diagnose these lung nodules, which are known to be difficult to reach and biopsy with currently available technologies. Our aim is to augment bronchoscopic lung biopsy by pushing the field towards true radiological image guidance.

Our Team

Bryan Hartley, MD

Bryan is co-founder and CEO of Pulmera. He is a fellowship trained interventional radiologist, with extensive experience with diagnostic radiology and image-guided procedures. Bryan completed his medical education, residency, and fellowship from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. After completing his training, he stayed on faculty at Vanderbilt for a year as a clinical instructor in diagnostic and interventional radiology before being accepted to the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship. At Stanford, Bryan worked with other innovators to discover the profound need within bronchoscopic lung biopsies and how techniques within interventional radiology could be applied to improve the diagnostic yield.

Harmeet Bedi, MD

Harmeet is co-founder and medical adviser to Pulmera. He is also a board-certified interventional pulmonologist and Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University. As an interventional pulmonologist, Harmeet’s clinical practice predominantly focuses on the diagnosis and management of malignant and benign diseases within the lungs through minimally-invasive techniques. He completed his internal medicine residency and pulmonary/critical care fellowship from Loma Linda University. Harmeet also completed a second fellowship in interventional pulmonology from Henry Ford Hospital. Having a strong passion for medical device innovation, he also completed the Biodesign Faculty fellowship at Stanford University.

Rene Vargas-Voracek, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Rene is the Director of Algorithm R&D at Pulmera. Prior to Pulmera, he worked for Conformis where he was focused on using computer vision techniques to enable the design of patient-specific orthopedic implants. Rene holds master and doctorate degrees from Duke University, working jointly with the Electrical Engineering and Radiology departments. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is listed as an inventor on several patents.

Norbert Pelc, Sc.D.

Norbert is a Senior Advisor to Pulmera and is also Boston Scientific Applied Biomedical Engineering Professor and Professor of Radiology at Stanford University. He is the former Chair of Bioengineering at Stanford. Norbert’s role has focused on advising and helping to develop Pulmera’s technology by leveraging his exceptional medical imaging experience. He holds a doctorate and master degrees in Medical Radiological Physics from Harvard University and a BS from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He served on the first National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the NIH. Among his many honors, he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, SPIE, the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Contact Us

Reach out to Bryan Hartley or Harmeet Bedi.