Urologists want to bring MRI’s clarity into their clinical practice. At AUA, we’ll demonstrate how Glenn™ can help them do exactly that
By Fazila Seker, CEO and Board Director, Insight Medbotics
Could you precisely hit the bullseye of a dart board while wearing blurry glasses?
If you’re a World Darts Champion, muscle memory means you might be willing to try.
But would you bet your life on that accuracy? Or the life of someone you love?
My team and I have spoken with over 70 urologists across the United States working in varied practice settings and with a range of clinical experience. Across these conversations, one theme remained remarkably consistent: urologists face similar visualization challenges. They want to bring greater precision to prostate cancer care—like personalized diagnosis, targeted treatment, and prostate preservation—instead of the current ‘one size fits all' intervention.
To bring that style of care to their patients, however, they’re often forced to guess due to the available tools. This tension between their vision and practical reality defines the field’s current state.
At Insight Medbotics, we’re resolving that tension by changing the MRI guidance paradigm for prostate cancer care. This May, after a competitive process, our team was selected to pitch at the American Urology Association’s (AUA) 2026 Innovation Nexus Forum. We’re proud to be among the 43 global innovators presenting on May 14, 2026 in Washington, DC.
I’m especially excited to share Insight Medbotics' vision for Glenn™, our next-generation robotics platform designed for precision in prostate cancer care, with investors, strategic partners, and AUA’s 24,000 worldwide members. Here’s an early taste of what to expect.
Why urologists are bringing MRI guidance into clinical practice
Better precision has big implications for prostate cancer patients:
- Greater certainty about their cancer diagnosis.
- Fewer missed cancers.
- Reduced anxiety and emotional distress.
- Fewer long-term health implications, such as urinary incontinence, bowel problems and sexual dysfunction.
Historically, urologists have relied on ultrasound to find and treat cancer within the prostate, but it offers poor visualization. You can't precisely target what you can't clearly see.
That limitation means that urologists have to take more healthy tissue to feel confident about the biopsy, which results in longer recovery times for patients. Sometimes, cancers also get missed, which heightens patients’ anxiety and emotional distress.
When cancer is diagnosed, targeting and visualization limitations may also mean removing the whole prostate. Doing so may come with life-altering complications—urinary incontinence, bowel problems and sexual dysfunction.
That's the precision gap’s human cost.
Urologists want to do better for their patients by doing less wherever possible. That need has prompted them to turn to MRI, which offers dramatically better visualization of prostate anatomy and suspicious lesions. Applying MRI to treatment plans opens a range of personalized options, including risk stratification, lesion targeting, and the promise of truly focal or localized therapy.
Yet, while urologists have embraced MRI, they've never had a way to properly use it.
Urologists want greater precision, but existing tools lag that need
Over the last fifteen years, urologists have picked at this problem with fusion, which combines MRI with ultrasound.
Without question, MRI delivers superior visualization, which makes MRI-guidance for biopsy and targeted/localized procedures the ideal tool. But accessing the MRI suite for those procedures presents its own constraints: namely, time, cost, and skill specialization. As a result, urologists are bringing MRI imaging into their prostate treatment workflows in suboptimal ways.
The current compromise involves fusion software, which overlays an historical MRI image of the prostate with the in-person ultrasound imaging during the procedure. It’s not as easy as it might sound because the static MRI image taken weeks before may not match the live ultrasound image; the prostate may be a different shape or in a different location.
What happens next is the software calculates where a lesion should be, rather than showing the urologist where it actually is. It's a make-do compromise that forces the urologist to guess when placing a biopsy needle or therapy device, much like our blurry dartboard example above.
When urologists have to guess the cancer’s location, that uncertainty opens the door to removing more healthy tissue, which inevitably impacts the patient’s long-term health and quality of life.
Over time, urologists have grown frustrated by this guesswork and how it underserves their patients’ needs. But what’s the point in complaining about your frustrations if you've never been shown an alternative that fits your reality?
Building a new robotics category for MRI guidance: What we learned when urologists saw the Art of the Possible
When we decided to pivot our MRI-compatible robotics platform from breast biopsy to another indication, prostate cancer came up early. We had a hunch we were onto something.
We’ve now validated that hunch with over 70 American urologists by showing them a future vision of their workflow—real MRI guidance designed for their clinical practice.
Through these conversations, urologists talked to us about confidence:
- In biopsy needle placement
- In focal therapy probe position
- In tumor margins, anatomy and decision making
Clear visualization increases confidence by removing guesswork, in turn creating:
- Better targeting
- Fewer unnecessary biopsy cores
- Faster patient recovery
- A wider pool of patients eligible for focal therapy
- Greater odds for better quality of life outcomes
Glenn™ expands access to MRI-guided precision while digitizing the entire care pathway. Of the 49 urologists who’ve personally seen how Glenn can resolve the precision gap, most opened up to us: They need greater precision—but their current tools force them to guess.
See Glenn™ for yourself at AUA Innovation Nexus
The American Urological Association (AUA) is a leading advocate for best practice in urologic care. Being selected to pitch at the AUA Innovation Nexus Forum recognizes that this problem matters to the field.
MRI is becoming increasingly central to prostate cancer care, as reflected in new reimbursement codes that recently came into effect in January 2026. The new codes reward both precision and MRI guidance, and that means better care for patients.
The limitations of MRI substitutes like fusion-based guidance are becoming harder to ignore.
Once urologists see what real MRI guidance looks like—intuitive, efficient and made for their practice—they won't need to guess.
At Innovation Nexus, we invite you to come and see for yourself. You can register for the conference on AUA's website or get in touch. We'd be happy to arrange an exclusive demonstration.
