A Florida ophthalmologist has patented a simple solution to an everyday problem for eye care professionals - a safe place for patients to put their specs during an eye exam.

Joshua Mali’s eyeglass holder looks very much like a standard spectacle case, but is able to be mounted on the edge of a slit lamp table or similar surface in the exam room.

The idea was sparked after a patient he was examining had removed his glasses and placed them inconveniently in front of the slit lamp joystick where they would have been crushed if he’d used the microscope, he told Ophthalmology Today. As the patient removed them from the table, he dropped them on the floor before placing them on a table beside the chair, making Dr Mali realise there was no readily-available place for his patients to put their specs, which they had to remove to have their eyes tested.

Dr Mali headed for the hardware store, dusted off his tools and set to work designing a prototype, which he’s since patented, and won an honourable mention for in The Winning Pitch competition at last year’s American Society of Retina Specialists.

He’s now selling his Mali Eyeglass Holder online after finding a manufacturer and setting up a company and is  exploring potential licensing opportunities and international distribution strategies, targeting not just ophthalmologists and optometrists but other healthcare professionals as well.