THIS WILL SAVE A LOT OF GLAUCOMA PATIENTS!
In an age of watches that record your heart rate and cell phone apps that track how many calories you burn, it’s only natural that eye care would offer its own contribution to the “wearables” movement. After years of development, the Triggerfish system (Sensimed)—a contact lens designed to continuously measure and record ocular changes closely correlated with intraocular pressure (IOP)—was recently cleared for marketing by the FDA.
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“This device could conceivably be used to determine the pretreatment fluctuations and impact of nighttime IOP on the clinical picture,” says I. Ben Gaddie, OD, president of the Optometric Glaucoma Society. “During treatment, it will help determine true response to medication as well as identify time points when IOP is fluctuating or slipping.”
In addition to the one-time-use silicone contact lens outfitted with a micro-sensor, the kit includes an antenna the patient wears around the eye that wirelessly transfers data from the lens to a portable recording device.
It doesn’t use the traditional millimeters of mercury to evaluate IOP, but Dr. Gaddie says that’s not a problem. He’s interested in using the device to monitor patients who are progressing faster than expected based on in-office IOP measurements. By obtaining a patient’s relative pressure over 24 hours, he says, the device could reveal if “the patient is performing activities that are leading to shorter-term elevation of IOP. Being able to identify these triggers and trends will be of tremendous help to the doctor.”
The Triggerfish will be loaned to patients by a doctor who will use the data to specify treatment, similar to how cardiologists issue temporary heart monitors.
The company seeks to “work closely with the glaucoma community to design and execute a major post-approval study” that will confirm the device’s ability to predict the course of the disease, Senismed CEO David Bailey said in a press release.
by By Bill Kekevian.
by By Bill Kekevian.
