Last week @Ehlyz on Yahoo linked to a webpage of the engineering firm Ziv-Av and wrote:
If you are still worried this company is fraud and there is no end product to sell, take a look at who is building their CT scanner, Ziv-Av, who is also a vendor for Mazor Robotics and other medical companies.
Sure enough, the engineering firm Ziv-Av claims that the Nanox.Arc device was developed by Ziv-Av's engineers, not by Nanox (Nanox supposedly only contributed a proposed x-ray source).
According to the webpage, published sometime in 2020 prior to Nanox IPO, Nanox.Arc is a revolutionary x-ray device that could do anything the current technology could, but it is smaller, more mobile, and at least 1/100 as affordable. The device was developed in record time - just 3 months, from scratch and for peanuts (Nanox shows in its prospectus on page 9 less than $3 million in research and development expenses for the entire 2019). It was this working prototype that supposedly led to the equity raise and Foxconn "endorsement" in January 2020.
The problem is that that the device shown on the webpage (Nanox.Arc version 1.0, according to Nanox tech webpage) is completely fake. It cannot take any x-ray images because it does not have any x-ray tubes and any x-ray detectors. It only has a battery and blue LED lights - no need for the special cooling system that Ziv-Av claims to have developed.
Ziv-Av's claim that this was a "working" prototype also contradicts the draft registration statement that Nanox did not have a working prototype prior to February 2020 (that is, the equity raise in January 2020 must have occurred without a working prototype):
We have not produced a working prototype of the Nanox.Arc (page 9)
Moreover, if the working prototype looked like what Ziv-Av is showing, then the device in the demo to Foxconn in December 2019 shown below must have used a non-working prototype - that is, the demo was fake.
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| device demoed to Foxconn, December 2019 |
Here is the list of all the false and weird claims by Ziv-Av on that webpage:
1. Ziv-Av develops revolutionary and affordable CT scanner for Nanox
Nope, even if the device were not fake, it cannot be used as a CT scanner due to limited number of projections (a CT scan uses hundreds of projections at different angles per arc/rotation). It is affordable only because it is completely fake.
2. Nanox is a medical imaging company which has developed a revolutionary CT device that is mobile, substantially smaller and extremely cheaper than the existing devices.
Nanox now denies that its proposed concept device is a CT device, and says it is a tomosynthesis device (unable to generate axial slices). The device is cheap only because it is fake - the main cost of a real device would be in the detector.
3. Nanox’s CT technology is based on digital X-ray production using a MEMS component instead of conventional flame lamps enabling cost reduction by orders of magnitude.
There is no such thing as digital x-ray production - the proposed Nanox x-ray source generates x-rays the same way as a regular $100 hot-cathode x-ray tube - by smashing a bunch of electrons into a metal target. And the cost of a Nanox tube will always be higher than a regular x-ray tube of the same performance, as any non-defective chip will cost more to make than a filament (a piece of wire). It is also apparent that Ziv-Av believes x-rays are generated by conventional flame lamps - not clear whether burning kerosene or lamp oil.
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| conventional x-ray tube per Ziv-Av ( image source: https://www.freeimages.com/photo/the-oil-lamp-3-1535516 ) |
4. The device supports scans such as CT, mammography, fluoroscopy and angiography.
Nanox now denies the CT and mammography "support" (CT-like imagining with 11 sources is now a simulation only). Fluoroscopy and angiography are still on the table for the concept device, but they would be extremely limited, as its device lacks the positional flexibility of modern low-cost C-arm devices.
5. Ziv-Av engineers revolutionized the medical imaging system
Nope - the medical imaging system is still the same.
6. Nanox approached Ziv-Av for the design of the revolutionary digital X-ray machine and its prototype within a stringent timeline of three months.
This may actually be true. But the only revolutionary thing was the complete fakeness of the device.
7. Among many other design features, Ziv-Av designed the arch of the scanner which scans the patient’s body from different angles.
Oh, so the Arc idea came from Ziv-Av rather than Nanox...
8. The arch is designed to work with a very high voltage of 70,000V which creates immense heat.
The statement that 70kV is associated with immense heat shows that Ziv-Av engineers do not understand basic physics and engineering. An x-ray tube that operates at 1mA generates less heat than a 100W lightbulb. Also, 70kV tube voltage is too low for a general x-ray device (it could be ok for extremities).
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| this lightbulb generates immense heat per Ziv-Av (image source: https://www.freeimages.com/photo/light-bulb-1531205 ) |
9. Ziv-Av managed the heat dissipation by designing a cooling system.
The cooling system in the device is fake and not needed, as there is no x-ray source. Subsequent proposed device iterations by Nanox show that the proposed "cooling system" is just a CNC-cut metal slab - a simple, and not very effective, heat sink.
10. Along with the arch of this amazing machine, Ziv-Av also provided the design of the machine’s table, mechanics, electricity, electronics and motion control system .
Wow - so the only thing that Nanox has developed was the proposed x-ray source, and everything else (fake, of course) came from Ziv-Av?
11. Through its specialists, Ziv-Av achieved a significant cost-reduction – realizing Nanox’ vision of affordability to all.
True. A fake device without an x-ray source or a detector or even a high-voltage generator would be cheap and affordable, indeed. And, as a plus, it does not even require radiation shielding. The only downside - it can generate no images.
12. Ziv-Av excels in cost-effective prototype production. Ziv-Av’s multidisciplinary engineers provided a turnkey solution from design to production of this innovative machine.
It is innovative and cost-effective, as it is completely fake - a rarity!
12. All the production, assembly & integration and tests were performed in Ziv-Av’s well-equipped workshop.
No doubt. Again, Nanox only contributed a proposed (fake) x-ray source.
13. The demonstrations of this perfectly working prototype helped Nanox raise $26 million within three months from many investors including ‘Foxconn-the IT industry giant’.
By perfectly working, Ziv-Av means it can light up in blue using the built-in LEDs and a 12V battery, of course.
14. From scratch to a revolutionary, cost-effective design as well as a working prototype – Ziv-Av accomplished all in just 3 months.
Nice.
What the webpage does not say is that the engineering firm's owner, Mr. Ziv-Av, at some point a chief scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Transportation, was convicted of securities fraud and then claimed that he did not know what he was doing.
Update: Apparently, a Nanox promoter also tweeted about Ziv-Av last week, transforming CT or computed tomography into "3d tomo" (tomo simply means slice in greek), falsely claiming that a single (non-axial) slice meant CT-like capability, and insisting 70kV or less is not a problem for chest:
Chest/lung, musculoskeletal including skull likely on this 510(k) w/ enhanced 3D, slices, plus 2D x-ray. Cheap device. Will expand market.
Yeah, will expand the market with a completely fake device.
Update December 20, 2021: Minor spelling correction.
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