Purdue University and Indiana University School of Optometry’s smart contact lens. Credit: Purdue University photo/Rebecca McElhoe

The US developers of a smart contact lens (CL) claim it will continuously monitor intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma patients, even as they sleep.

Dr Chi Hwan Lee, from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, led the development and co-founded BVS Sight to market the smart CL. Built upon commercial soft CL brands, Dr Lee said his smart CLs retain the intrinsic features of lens power, biocompatibility, softness, transparency, wettability, oxygen transmissibility and overnight wearability. “Having all these features at the same time is crucial to the success of translating the smart soft contact lenses into glaucoma care, but these features are lacking in current wearable ocular tonometers.”

Prototype CLs have been trialled by Dr Lee’s team in normal to hypertensive eyes of dogs, rabbits and humans and were deemed safe and effective*. However, challenges – including further clinical studies, regulatory approval, reimbursement and fundraising – remain to be surmounted before the lenses are available to human patients, said BVS Sight board director Dr Eric Beier, partner and chief medical officer at healthcare investment firm Boomerang Ventures.

For more tonometer innovations, see www.nzoptics.co.nz/articles/archive/smart-cl-future-for-glaucoma-treatment/ and www.nzoptics.co.nz/articles/archive/fits-like-a-tonometer/

* www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33254-4