Medix21's Camille Furnandiz wearing headset with colleague Julian Knaggs

Just two days after the Retinalogik AI-based virtual reality (VR) system reached New Zealand shores it was on display on Medix21’s stand at the RANZCO NZ 2025 conference, ready to wow eyecare professionals.

The Canadian-designed and manufactured shiny new VR field testing headset gave attendees the chance to 'leave’ the exhibition hall and enter a stylish lounge with a magnificent mountain view, not unlike those in Queenstown. Retinalogik’s virtual AI agent ‘Robyn’, who can speak in 20 languages, was there to give tutorials and voice prompts.

By integrating AI and VR, the headset tests visual fields, visual acuity, colour vision and contrast sensitivity “all in one go”, said Medix21’s surgical sales manager Camille Furnandiz. “Retinalogik provides print outs that are identical to Humphrey – the gold standard for visual field testing. Its visual field capabilities allow for progression analysis and detection and monitoring of glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.”

The beauty of the headset is the patient can sit comfortably in the clinic waiting room and have all their tests done there in just a few minutes without the need to move around or having a technician keeping them on task, she said. “They don’t have to sit in the dark or have one eye patched.”

Furnandiz said Retinalogik will also be integrated with CatTrax to push the tests via DICOM, making the transfer of patient data into digital records seamless.

The VR units are available as an outright purchase or on a subscription basis, which includes support and software updates pushed out every three months with new tests, which Furnandiz said makes it cheaper than buying a piece of capital equipment. The device is also easy to use, she said. “Our team has had it for two days and we only learnt to use it last night!”

IOL for cataract and AMD

Also on show on Medix21’s stand was the new EyeMax Mono Sharp View intraocular lens (IOL), designed for patients with cataract and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who have been stable for six months.

The EyeMax looks like a cataract IOL and is implanted during cataract surgery but, unlike monofocal lenses, distributes light across a wider area allowing patients to use healthier parts of their retina, said Furnandiz. “It magnifies a 6mm diameter around the fovea, shifting the image to use any healthy macula within that zone. As long as there is any healthy macula within that 6mm diameter, it will keep shifting the image… improving functional vision and prolonging useful vision for AMD patients.” The IOL is limited to patients who still have some healthy macula and require cataract surgery, she said.