Author: Medgadged

Leica M320 F12 ENT Microscope with New Multifocal Lens, High Definition Camera

by Medgadged • 2014/06/02 • 0 Comments

Leica Microsystems has upgraded its Leica M320 F12 ENT surgical microscope with a new multifocal objective lens and a 1080p HD video camera.

The new lens allows surgeons performing ear, nose, and throat procedures to change the working distance between 200 mm and 300 mm from the surgical site without having to move the microscope. The camera allows video and photo capture, which are saved to an SD card within the device. These can then be shared with other clinicians and shown to patients, as well as saved into electronic medical records.

Cheap Smartphone Eye Exam System Rivals Professional Equipment in Field Trials

by Medgadged • 2014/04/30 • 0 Comments

Last year we covered a new smartphone-based eye exam system that was being tested in Kenya as an alternative to traditional, costlier equipment. The PEEK (Portable Eye Examination Kit) combines the power of a smartphone, including its camera and flash, with a 3D printed clip-on adapter that makes taking eye exams a snap. Here’s Andrew Bastawrous, a Kenyan ophthalmologist that’s the lead on the project, showing off the technology and discussing how it completely changed the way eye exams have been performed in the field trials.

FluidVision Accomodating Lens Implant Automatically Adjusts Focus of Eye

by Medgadged • 2014/03/13 • 0 Comments

A number of eye conditions can make a person to lose the ability to change the shape of the lens, also known as loss of accommodation. People with presbyopia and those that get traditional intraocular lenses for cataracts suffer from this frustrating condition. A new lens developed by PowerVision, a company out of Belmont, California, aims to restore the eye’s ability to focus by changing its shape much like a natural one.

The FluidVision implant harnesses the natural forces the eye produces to move fluid in and out of its lens. This allows the lens to change its thickness and so its refractive power. The device is implanted using the same techniques as any other intraocular lens and the first cataract patients in an initial trial are now beginning to get the implant.

Stanford Scientists Unveil Two Ophthalmology Smartphone Adapters

by Medgadged • 2014/03/13 • 0 Comments

Researchers at Stanford University have developed two new smartphone attachments that allow imaging of the eye that would normally done with large, bulky instruments. Ophthalmologists imaging the anterior segment of the eye (cornea, iris, ciliary body, lens) use slit lamp instruments that shine a bright flat beam of light onto the eye in combination with a microscope. There already exist attachments for slit lamps that allow a smartphone to snap on and be used to capture and share images of the eye, but the slit lamp is still a bulky instrument.

The team developed a small iPhone attachment that snaps onto just about any smartphone to visualize the anterior segment. It consists of a small lens and an LED just next to it and is small enough to fit in your pocket. It’s positioned close to the eye, focused, and an image is taken. In a study published in Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine they report that the device “satisfactorily portrays a wide range of pathology of the eyelids, conjunctiva, cornea, iris, and lens without the need for a slitlamp.”

OphtaCath Lacrimal Duct Balloon Catheter Now Available in U.S. for Epiphora Treatment

by Medgadged • 2014/01/09 • 0 Comments

The FDA issued approval to FCI Ophthalmics (Pembroke, MA) for the OphtaCath lacrimal duct balloon catheter, a device used to dilate the lacrimal duct for treatment of epiphora, or excessive tears in the eyes.

Available in 2mm or 3mm sizes, and a delivery device that uses one or two balloon catheters, the OphtaCath provides an incisionless and tube-free option for epiphora treatment. The semi-flexible balloon retains its shape memory before and after inflation and the inflation device allows for precise control of pressure delivered to the balloon. The balloon is made of a high strength material that resists bursting even at high pressures.

New High Speed Eye Scanner Helps Identify Retinal Diseases

by Medgadged • 2013/12/23 • 0 Comments

Eye conditions like glaucoma and macular degeneration are best treated when spotted early, but often they go undiagnosed until symptoms appear because the instruments used to detect them are in an ophthalmologist’s office, not your primary care physician’s. A team at MIT has developed a hand-held device that can quickly, and with a single scan, help detect a variety of retinal conditions.

The device performs high-speed optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging using an infrared light source and tiny 2D mirror, creating a high-resolution 3D image of the retina. The system also automatically corrects for eye movement, effectively freezing the eye during the scan for a focused, streak-free result. Thought the essential technology inside the scanner has existed for years, and table-top systems have allowed diagnosis of retinal diseases by specialists, the new scanner may allow for population-wide screening of eye diseases.

Drug Dispensing Contact Lenses Replacing Eye Drops in Glaucoma Treatment?

by Medgadged • 2013/12/10 • 0 Comments

The doctor is always curious whether you have been taking your medication, and some drugs are more difficult to administer than others. Numerous ways have already been put to practice to ensure medication compliance, but now another innovation is significantly closer to practical realization: drug-eluting contact lenses to ensure prolonged delivery of anti-glaucoma eye drops. Glaucoma is a disease in which an elevated intraocular pressure causes damage to the eye, resulting in visual field loss, sometimes progressing to blindness. Treatment mainly relies on lowering the eye pressure and certain eye drops, such as the latanoprost, can lower the eye pressure. The results of a study by a team from Massachusetts Eye and Ear testing the newly developed contacts will be published in Biomaterials in January, but are already available online.

The new contact lenses contain encapsulated latanoprost-polymer films and were tested in vivo on rabbits. The team was able to achieve latanoprost concentrations in the aqueous humor, comparable with daily latanoprost eye drops. The drug-polymer film is located in the periphery of the contact lens, ensuring a clear view through the centre of the lens. The lenses can also be used by traditional contacts wearers to correct nearsightedness or farsightedness.

Recreational Photos Reveal Early Stages of Retinoblastoma

by Medgadged • 2013/11/20 • 0 Comments

A modern child growing up in today’s gadget-filled world is photographed nearly all day long by parents who must capture every precious moment that time would otherwise eat up. Conveniently, a basic camera with a flash can also help spot retinoblastoma, a malignant cancer that, like others, is easier to treat if diagnosed early. Professional screenings for the disease are rare, and it’s been known for a while that ”white eye” showing up in flash photos, also known as leukocoria, is indicative of advanced retinoblastoma. Yet, using personal photos hasn’t been seriously considered as a screening option for early detection of the disease.

Bryan F. Shaw, a chemistry and biochemistry professor at Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences, and his wife noticed leukocoria in the photos of his son, which followed with a diagnosis of retinoblastoma. Shaw followed to see whether this could be a systematic way to screen children, and assembled a team that went through 7,000 photos of eighteen kids with and without the disease that were provided by the parents. They discovered that even photos days after birth can show signs of leukocoria that can be indicative of retinoblastoma and that the frequency of white eye is linked to the disease’s progression. Moreover, the visual characteristics of the eye can be measured and turn out to be correlated to the true intensity of leukocoria.

KXL II from Avedro for Non-Surgical Correction of Myopia

by Medgadged • 2013/11/15 • 0 Comments

Avedro (Boston, MA) received CE Mark clearance in Europe for its KXL II System that’s used for Accelerated Cross-linking and PiXL (Photorefractive Intrastromal Cross-linking) procedures for treatment of myopia.

“As one of the first KXL II clinical sites, we experienced the amazing capabilities of customized accelerated cross-linking to achieve specific, reproducible and interim-stable refractive changes on the cornea,” said A. John Kanellopoulos, MD, NYU Medical School and Member of Avedro’s Medical Advisory Board. “It seems to me that every surgeon who has performed cross-linking has experienced refractive corneal changes. We now have a way to design and customize these refractive changes. If these initial clinical results continue to be repeated, as I believe they will, the potential seems unlimited.”

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Leica Unveils Surgical Microscopes with Built-In TrueVision 3D Technology

by Medgadged • 2013/10/22 • 0 Comments

Surgical microscopes now offer 3D capabilities, but to see the images one had to use a separate cart with a 3D screen and related equipment on it. Now Leica Microsystems is releasing a couple new microscopes with with TrueVision (Santa Barbara, CA) 3D technology built right in.

The new Leica M720 OH5 and Leica M525 OH4 models stream both 2D and 3D video to other displays, features a small footprint and an ergonomic design, and, of course, legendary Leica optics.

New Superpixel Imaging of the Optic Disc to Allow Screening of Population for Glaucoma

by Medgadged • 2013/09/11 • 0 Comments

Glaucoma is a progressive eye disease that eventually causes blindness and has no true cure. Yet, early detection of glaucoma offers options to slow down its development, but too many people notice symptoms much too late for effective therapy. Intraocular pressure sensing is currently the go-to method, but it’s not effective for screening the general public before any symptoms are reported.

Scientists at A*STAR Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore have developed a new method that utilizes high resolution imaging of the optic disk (optic nerve head) to detect the elongation of the optic cup, an area in the center of the disk, which usually happens before any noticeable changes in vision are noticed by someone with early stage glaucoma. The system involves automatic superpixel segmentation of the image into tiny quadrants and detection of the areaa of the cup and the disk. The ratio between the vertical heights of the two turns out to correlate pretty well with confirmed glaucoma diagnoses. As importantly, the system is small and cheap enough to be used to screen entire populations and help a lot more people live longer with healthy vision.

A Specialized and Structured EMR: Interview with Modernizing Medicine Co-Founder and CEO, Daniel Cane

by Medgadged • 2013/08/20 • 0 Comments

In large part due to 2009′s Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, there has been a proliferation of electronic medical record systems. Many of the largest providers, such as Johns Hopkins and Kaiser Permanente, have seen a consolidation onto large systems like Epic, while many small to middle-sized providers continue to use direct to consumer type systems such as Practice Fusion. These systems are competing for market share and thus have built products that can be used by everyone from family physicians to neurosurgeons, often in a one-size-fits-all fashion.

We recently came across a relatively new EMR called Modernizing Medicine, which had a presence at both TEDMED and CONVERGE this year, that announced today that it received $14 million in equity funding. Their approach is to build focused systems for key specialties, starting with dermatology and moving to opthalmology and even orthopedic and plastic surgery. We had the opportunity to speak with Modernizing Medicine’s CEO and Co-founder, Daniel Cane, who is no stranger to building tech solutions for large industries; as an undergraduate at Cornell in the late 1990s he co-founded Blackboard, the largest learning management system in education.

PEEK App Uses Smartphone Technology to Bring Eye Exams to Developing Countries

by Medgadged • 2013/08/16 • 0 Comments

Smartphone camera quality may sound like a first world issue, but camera-equipped cell phones may be the key to treating the eyes of over 250 million people with visual impairments who live in third world countries. A new application called PEEK (Portable Eye Examination Kit) puts a number of standard tests on a standard smartphone. The phone’s camera can be used to scan the lens of the eye, while the LED flash is bright enough to illuminate the retina. The phone’s screen can be used to conduct various vision tests, and all the data can be geotagged using the phone’s built-in GPS, compiled into a patient record, and sent wirelessly to a doctor.

PEEK is currently undergoing trials on 5,000 patients in Kenya, but the early results are promising and have so far allowed doctors to provide further treatment to over 1,000 patients.

Cerepress Elucidates Intracranial Pressure from a Quirky Scan of Eye

by Medgadged • 2013/08/15 • 0 Comments

Critically elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) represents the important cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with intracranial pathology, but measuring it has long been a problem because doing it effectively has required invasive methods that are not exactly practical on the sidelines of a football field or by a bedside.

Third Eye Diagnostics out of Bethlehem, PA has been developing a promising device called Cerepress that measures central retinal venous pressure (CRVP) and how fast blood is flowing through the ophthalmic artery, which together correlate well with intracranial pressure (Pearson’s correlation coefficient r=0.94, according to the company). The CRVP is itself derived from the intraocular pressure combined with images taken of the central retinal vein. A clinician places the device over the eye socket after which a probe extends and touches the eye, increasing the intraocular pressure and completely compressing the central retinal vein. When that happens, intraocular pressure equals the CRVP, so the system measures the IOP like any traditional tonometer. A Doppler ultrasound probe is the used to measure the blood velocity in the ophthalmic artery and the reading is combined with the CRVP to derive the intracranial pressure.

Smart, Continuous Monitoring of Intra-Ocular Pressure with Triggerfish Contact Lens: Q&A with René Goedkoop, CMO of Sensimed

by Medgadged • 2013/07/29 • 0 Comments

Smart contact lenses are no longer science fiction. In the last few years we have covered several smart contact lenses with different purposes. One of these electronic contact lenses is the Sensimed Triggerfish, a device capable of continuous measurement of the intra-ocular pressure (IOP). It is the first of its kind, since current measurements of IOP, like applanation tonometry and air-puff tonometry, can only give us the IOP at a certain moment, whereas the Triggerfish can monitor the course of the IOP throughoutthe day. As we write this, the Triggerfish is already being clinically tested.

Medgadget had the chance to interview Dr. René Goedkoop, Chief Medical Officer of Sensimed, the Swiss company responsible for the Triggerfish, and get more details about the motivation and the fascinating technology inside the device.

Technology Used for Find Distant Galaxies Adapted to Detect AMD

by Medgadged • 2013/07/18 • 0 Comments

Infrared ear thermometers, cordless vacuum cleaners, and memory foam mattresses are all products you’ll likely find around your home. But these three household items also had their beginnings in space, assisting astronauts in exploring the final frontier.

The latest space technology spinoff comes from the engineers at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC). It’s a device whose technology is typically used to detect faint light from distant stars and galaxies, but which has been modified to detect the earliest stages of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD, a disease that causes loss of vision starting with the center of the field of vision and moving outward, is said to be the world’s most common form of vision loss in adults.

Alpha IMS Vision Restoring Wireless Retinal Implant Now Cleared in Europe (VIDEO)

by Medgadged • 2013/07/08 • 0 Comments

Germany’s Retina Implant AG has received European regulatory approval to begin offering its Alpha IMS implant for restoration of moderate sight in people blinded due to retinitis pigmentosa. The system essentially replaces the function of the retina, capturing light on a 3×3 mm wireless microchip that has a 1500 pixel resolution, and stimulating the optic nerve based on what the chip sees. The Alpha IMS doesn’t use an external camera, so looking around is done naturally with the eyes rather than the head, as in some systems.

Thirty six people have received the implant so far, and the latest study involving nine blind people showed that the system is a practical solution to restoring useful vision in select patients, as they were able to recognize numbers on doors, faces, and identify facial expressions.

Telescopic Contact Lens System for AMD Allows Switching Between Normal, Zoom Modes

by Medgadged • 2013/06/27 • 0 Comments

People with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) experience progressive vision loss in parts of their retinas. Typically, either specialty glasses or surgically implanted telescopic lenses are used to project images to the healthy parts of the retina. The glasses are uncomfortable and look goofy, resembling ones surgeons use with telescopes protruding from the front.

Now a team of researchers from U.S. and Switzerland, funded by DARPA, are reporting the development of a contact lens, that works in conjunction with active polarized glasses, to provide both normal and telescopic projection of light onto the retina. The contact lens has two built-in lenses, one in the center that simply adjusts where the light is projected and one around it that has a zoom of 2.8 magnification. Both send light to the same region of the eye, but because they’re polarized perpendicular to each other, basically the same glasses that are used for viewing movies on 3D TV’s can be adapted to allow the wearer to change through which lens light gets to the eye.

Magnetically Controlled Microrobots for Minimally Invasive Eye Surgeries

by Medgadged • 2013/06/27 • 0 Comments

Today’s ophthalmic surgeons continue to rely on on bulky, manually operated tools that can be quite invasive while being limited as to what can be done with them. Lasers offer precision, but they’re not applicable in many situations because of the potential of damage to the eye.

A research team at the Swiss science and technology institute ETH Zurich has been working on a system that can control a micro-probe injected into the eye using an array of electromagnets. The OctoMag or OphthoMag system can move the probe, that’s only a bit thicker than human hair, with five degrees of freedom while visualizing its position under a microscope. The team also created a smaller version of the system, the MiniMag, for laboratory work at an even smaller scale.

Light Powered Retinal Implants Promise a Bright Cyborgian Future for Many Blind

by Medgadged • 2013/06/19 • 0 Comments

Retinal prostheses have the potential to bring sight to people that would otherwise stay blind for the rest of their lives due to retinal degenerative disease. While the basics of the technology are getting ironed out, the issues of delivering power to an implant and interfacing it with an external camera remain. Wires penetrating the skin can get dirty and lead to dangerous infections, and relying on glasses-based cameras for input just doesn’t cut it for our cyborgian future.

Researchers at Stanford have been working on technology that may change all that, thanks to tiny photovoltaic modules that autonomously convert visible light to electric potentials. The system relies on electronic glasses that shine near-infrared light onto the implant, removing any wires out of the picture. The original photovoltaic pixels were somewhat large, but now they are able to make them as small as 70 μm. They successfully tested the implants in laboratory rats and identified the optimal range of frequencies and pulse durations to illicit the strongest visually evoked potentials (VEP) in the brain. By stringing together dozens of these pixels within a contact lens, the researchers hope to achieve a true retinal prosthetic that would bring sight to untold numbers of people.

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