Vision Australia and US-based start-up Aira have launched a new app to link vision-impaired people in New Zealand and Australia with people who can be their “eyes”. Blind or low-vision users, who Aira terms “explorers”, wear smart glasses or use a smart phone that beams live stream footage. Aira co
Israeli biomed developer CorNeat Vision has jointly taken out the top spot in the start-up competition at the MIXiii-Biomed exhibition in Tel Aviv. The company is developing an artificial cornea implant, the CorNeat KPro, which could help millions of people suffering from diseases of the cornea.
Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data and blockchain will impact the pharmaceutical industry, not only by adding value through personalized treatment for patients, but also to counteract the unsustainability of skyrocketing drug prices, says data and analytics compan
Associate Professor Osamah Saeedi, director of clinical research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, was awarded the Heidelberg Engineering 2018 Xtreme Research Award. A/Prof Saeedi won the award for a novel technique he has developed,
Dr Ashley Bloomfield has been appointed Director-General of Health. Health Minister Dr David Clark says Bloomfield has the skills and experience to be an outstanding leader for the Ministry of Health. Dr Bloomfield is currently Chief Executive of Capital and Coast District Health Board, where he i
AI can pick up a potentially devastating cause of childhood blindness automatically and more accurately than most expert physicians, says a paper published in JAMA Ophthalmology. The algorithm accurately diagnosed retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in images of infants’ eyes 91 percent of the time, wh
Dye-tinted, soft contact lenses could be a cheap and effective treatment for colour vision deficiency (CVD), reported Birmingham university researchers. The lenses, dyed with a non-toxic rhodamine derivative dye, enhance colour perception in people with red-green CVD by blocking a band of light betw
New research suggests dark chocolate could sharpen vision. The randomised, single-masked crossover design study by the University of the Incarnate Word in Texas, assessed 30 healthy-eyed participants’ visual acuity after eating dark or milk chocolate. Those who ate dark chocolate had a small, but me
Moorfields Eye Hospitals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have developed a sweet drink that delivers a coloured dye to the retina, to help doctors diagnose retinal diseases in children without using injections. The new procedure, oral fundus fluorescein angiography, uses ultra-widefield retinal imaging to fol
Optometry Australia’s Clinical and Experimental Optometry’s new editor is optometrist, academic and researcher Emeritus Professor Nathan Efron. He takes over from Emeritus Professor Barry Collin AM, who retired in March after 24 years in the role. Professor Efron will lead the journal, which is one
Researchers from Columbia University have developed a new technique for the powerful gene editing tool CRISPR to restore retinal function in mice afflicted by the degenerative retinal disease, retinitis pigmentosa. As this is the first time the CRISPR technology has been shown to work on an inherite
Snap recently released the new version of Spectacles, its (more-or-less) hands-free camera, with new features for taking photos and better water resistance. This version aims to solve problems and add functionality following the less-than-spectacular launch of the first version, which users found un
