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Zeiss unveils latest OCT imaging platforms
The new offerings fit the needs of different types of practices.
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CHICAGO — On top of an already profitable year, Carl Zeiss Meditec is looking to maintain its momentum with the introduction of a new family of optical coherence tomography products.
At a press briefing at the 2012 joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology, Zeiss representatives introduced two new suites of imaging products under the Cirrus brand name.
“We have seen very healthy growth in all of our business regions, which is really surprising considering the state of the world economy,” company president and CEO Ludwin Monz, PhD, said.
“[Zeiss is committed to] providing everything needed for the diagnosis and treatment of ophthalmic diseases,” Monz said. The company’s product portfolio for hospitals, clinics, ambulatory surgery centers and private practices includes offerings for cataract surgery, corneal refractive surgery, glaucoma and retina.
Meeting diagnosis, treatment needs
“Practices vary in their level of care, practice workflow and case-load volume,” Ralf Kuschnereit, PhD, senior vice president of the Ophthalmic Systems Division, said. “We believe that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution and that we need to provide tailored solutions and products that really fit the specific needs of the different practices.”
With that philosophy in mind, the Cirrus HD-OCT 5000 and 500 and the Cirrus photo 800 and 600 make the latest high-definition, high-resolution technology available to advanced care clinics as well as to comprehensive practices for the diagnosis and treatment of retinal disease and glaucoma.
The Cirrus HD-OCT 5000 is designed for the advanced care clinic that wants high-quality OCT with high patient throughput. The platform features the FastTrac retinal tracking system, which reduces motion artifact not only by adjusting scans to obtain motion-free images at a single visit but also by scanning the same location of the patient’s eye at every visit.
Such functionality allows for better tracking of disease progression, Kuschnereit said.
The companion Cirrus HD-OCT 500 has a much faster alignment image refresh rate, which makes patient alignment easier. While the Cirrus 500 does not have the FastTrac system, its images are precisely registered to measure visit-to-visit change and the fast scans minimize eye motion artifacts. The 500 model has a small footprint and is more suitable for the comprehensive practice in which OCT has become a necessity.
Zeiss’ new OCT platform for both models also enables expanded electronic workflow support.
For practices that want combination technologies, the Cirrus photo 800 is a versatile multi-modality imager that integrates in a single view essential OCT analyses and fundus imaging. The system also includes fluorescein angiography and optional indocyanine green angiography.
The Cirrus photo 600 is “the smart imaging combo” of fundus and OCT, tailored to the comprehensive practice, and features non-mydriatic color with a fundus autofluorescence option.
Software support
Monz also announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance of Forum 3.0, an updated software version of the Zeiss Ophthalmic Data Management Solution, which connects all of the company’s devices and third party products.
“[Forum] is a central data archive for all kinds of clinical data, such as fundus images, OCT scans and visual fields,” Kuschnereit said. “You can review all the data and make a clinical decision. This, of course, improves the workflow in a practice because you have it all on one screen. But we want to go beyond simply increased productivity. We want to ultimately be a clinical decision support system.”
For instance, Forum 3.0 allows for customized presentation of clinical data.
“There are nine different reports that are preconfigured for specific eye pathologies,” Kuschnereit said. The new Forum version allows for networking within multi-site practices for patients who travel from one office to another.
Also new is the Visuref 100, a routine diagnostics system that combines an autorefractor with a keratometer, with both a manual and automatic triggering mode. Features of this device include a contact lens base curve mode, pupil and iris diameter measurement, and an integrated thermoprinter with Auto Cut. – by Bob Kronemyer and Patricia Nale