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Volk diversifies with handheld devices
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ATLANTA – Volk Optical is known for its diagnostic ophthalmic lenses, but the company is now following a diversification strategy that is leading it into handheld instruments.
Volk showcased its Pictor Plus handheld portable fundus and anterior segment camera and the Volk Eye Check, a handheld mobile eye measurement device, at a press conference here at SECO.
“I had been told for years and years by doctors that if we could develop a handheld fundus camera for under $10,000, we’d have a winner. That’s the Pictor Plus,” Volk Optical President Peter Mastores told Primary Care Optometry News.
Mastores said the Pictor Plus does fundus and anterior segment imaging, making it useful for diabetic retinopathy screening, age-related macular disease management and pathology detection.
“It also has an adapter where you can take the retina module and put it on a slit lamp and convert all of your exam rooms to photography rooms,” he added. “It weighs less than 2 pounds. Techs can take pictures and send them to the doctor even if he or she is out of the office. It stores images on the camera and also connects to WiFi.”
Volk also recently launched the Volk Eye Check, a small camera that takes 17 different measurements and now has a contact lens module to help with specialty lens fitting.
Mastores told PCON that 75% of the company’s business is still in lenses, but Volk has been attempting to diversify by exploring the surgical and diagnostic electronic imaging segments.
“Everything is going toward electronic records, and we felt we had to get involved,” Mastores said, “so we chose handheld devices for our niche.
“We’re never stopping lenses,” he continued. “We’re in the third generation Volk optics, so we continue to develop better and better optics when new materials become available.” – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO