EyePod: Week in Review - October 1, 2023

Welcome to the Ophthalmology Times Week in Review podcast, offering a look at some of the week’s top headlines.

Treating dry eye and other ocular conditions may take a village

When patients present with dry eye disease and other ocular conditions, the treatment course may become more challenging. Doctor John Sheppard, of Virginia Eye Consultants, Norfolk, describes a pair of cases and his treatment approach in 2 patients with dry eye disease, and shared some of the highlights. You can catch that article on OphthalmologyTimes.com.

Sheppard emphasized the need for importance of collaboration among ocular clinicians considering the low number of ophthalmologists in training annually and the tripling of the Medicare population in recent decades. He emphasized that optometrists and ophthalmologists should be experts in ocular surface disease.

Dopavision completes enrollment in trial for the digital treatment of myopia

Dopavision has reported successful completion of enrollment in its MyopiaX-1 trial of MyopiaX, a smartphone application that aims to slow the progression of myopia, or nearsightedness, in children and adolescents.

The clinical trial, MyopiaX-1, is a randomized, active-controlled trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and clinical outcomes of MyopiaX in pediatric participants with myopia.

Dopavision describes MyopiaX as “a non-invasive, light-based treatment designed to provide a medical effect digitally.” MyopiaX uses a virtual reality headset and wireless controller to deliver the treatment while children engage with age-appropriate digital content.

The first clinical results are expected in the beginning of 2024 and the 12-month MyopiaX-1 trial is scheduled to be completed in September 2024. The MyopiaX-1 trial is being conducted at 10 clinical sites across Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

FDA grants 510(k) clearance to Altris IMS platform

Altris Inc. this week announced this FDA has granted 510(k) clearance of its IMS platform, the company’s image, and data management platform.

According to a news release, the Altris platform can store, organize, and support in-depth analysis of Optical Coherence Tomography scans. The platform provides secure, on-the-cloud, web-based access to facilitate more convenient and accurate OCT scan analysis in ophthalmology and optometry.

For five years, Altris AI has been developing software solutions for OCT interpretation to support eye care professionals in clinical decision-making using advanced machine learning and computer vision algorithms.

The company noted in its news release its IMS platform has several features that boost the OCT examination analysis routine.

NIH awards researchers $1.2 million to develop robotic eye examination system

A collaboration between researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Duke University has developed a robotic eye examination system, and the National Institutes of Health has awarded the researchers $1.2 million to expand and refine the system.

According to a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign news release, researchers have developed a robotic system that automatically positions examination sensors to scan human eyes. The university noted it currently uses an optical scan technique which can operate from a reasonably safe distance from the eye, and now the researchers are working to add more features that will help it perform most steps of a standard eye exam. These features will require the system to operate in closer proximity to the eye.

The university news release noted the award will allow the researchers to conduct large-scale reliability testing. A key part of these tests is ensuring that the system works for a wide range of people. To achieve this, the researchers have developed a second robot that will use mannequin heads to emulate unexpected human behaviors. Moreover, the second robot will automatically randomize the heads’ appearance with different skin tones, facial features, hair and coverings to help the researchers understand and mitigate the effects of algorithmic bias in their system.