Dr. Garth Webb, the CEO of Canada-based Ocumetics Technology Corp, has developed a new type of bionic lens that enables patients with impaired vision to see three times better, without having to undergo any kind of agonizing surgery. Aptly called Ocumetics Bionic Lens, this completely painless implant goes far beyond the standard 20/20 vision, thereby giving patients near-superhuman eyesight in less than eight minutes.
The invention comes after eight long years of research, for which the company had to spend a staggering $3 million. Presented this May at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, the project aims to help the 14 million Americans currently suffering from visual impairment. Speaking about the Bionic Lens, Webb said:
This is vision enhancement that the world has never seen before. If you can just barely see the clock at 10 feet, when you get the Bionic Lens you can see the clock at 30 feet away. Perfect eyesight should be a human right.
Unlike regular contact lens, this specially-developed Bionic implant requires a simple eight-minute procedure, similar to cataract surgery. Each of these lenses is custom-made, and comes folded in saline solution. Once it is injected directly into the individual’s eye, the lens unrolls and takes its place over the eye’s natural lens in less than 10 seconds. According to Webb, immediately after the procedure, the patient’s vision gets corrected, leaving him or her with perfect enviable eyesight. Dr. Vincent DeLuise, of Yale University, said:
There’s a lot of excitement about the Bionic Lens from very experienced surgeons who perhaps had some cynicism about this because they’ve seen things not work in the past. They think that this might actually work and they’re eager enough that they all wish to be on the medical advisory board to help him on his journey. I think this device is going to bring us closer to the holy grail of excellent vision at all ranges — distant, intermediate and near.
At present, Webb and his team are gearing up to start clinical trials on animals. If everything goes according to plan, the Bionic Lens will be available for sale in Canada no later than 2017.
To know more about Ocumetrics Technology Corp, click here.
Via: Medical Daily
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