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New autorefractor helps take vision care to remote locations
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Smart Vision Labs has developed the SVOne, an autorefractor that slides onto an iPhone and saves data to a cloud, allowing local technicians to gather refraction data for an eye care practitioner to review from another location.
Smart Vision founders Yaopeng Zhou and Marc Albanese are “working to make their technology accessible to 1 billion people across the globe in need of eye care,” according to the company’s website.
The device uses aberrometry to determine a patient’s prescription, including sphere, cylinder and axis, Albanese told Primary Care Optometry News in an interview. “As we continue software upgrades, we plan to offer more higher-order aberration data, which makes the device even more valuable,” he said.
“Besides being an aberrometer, which makes it precise, it’s ultra portable, has great battery life and is connected so you can save data to the cloud,” Albanese continued. “It’s open field, which means when you’re testing children, you can look at one eye at a time and have their other eye still focused for distance, and this helps dramatically reduce the accommodative effects during the refraction.”
Albanese said the company, which was founded 3 years ago, has 11 prototypes of the device, with some being used in underdeveloped regions of the world such as Haiti, Nicaragua and Guatemala. The company has worked with Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) as well as Vision Spring.
“In Haiti, one of the VOSH doctors had tested a 6-year-old using a portable autorefractor and got -3 D in both eyes,” Albanese said. “They used our device and got plano in both eyes, and the same thing with a retinoscope. Doctors love the fact that they can use it on kids and also take it out for screenings.”
The company expects to ship 100 devices to customers, including a number of VOSH doctors, in mid-February, he said.
Albanese told PCON that a clinical trial involving 50 patients began at the State University of New York College of Optometry in November.
The patients are undergoing refractions with the SVOne, another portable autorefractor, a standalone desktop unit and standard refraction, with and without drops, Albanese said.
“Results have been great so far,” he added.