ECS02 – Lightfield Medical
Lightfield Medical: Autonomous digital capture of the entire slit-lamp exam reinvents the heart and soul of ophthalmology
- Berestka, MD1,*
1Cornea, Northwest Eye Clinic, Minneapolis, United States
The ophthalmic slit lamp, the cornerstone of ophthalmology, has remained stagnant for decades. The current slit lamp exam paradigm necessitates the doctor’s physical presence in the room with the patient, making the exam ephemeral and incapable of easy digital capture. Conventional slit-lamp cameras, while useful, slow down the exam, produce inadequate images, and cannot be delegated to technicians. These limitations reduce ophthalmologist productivity and hinder telemedicine in ophthalmology.
For decades, ophthalmologists have delegated retinal and optic nerve imaging to technicians. The missing link in ophthalmology is a solution to automatically capture the entire slit-lamp exam. Lightfield Medical reinvented the slit -lamp from first principles using high speed camera arrays, tunable liquid lenses and a digital light engine. A minimally trained technician simply aligns the device on the pupil and presses a button, allowing the device to take over and capture the anterior segment for the ophthalmologist. The eye doctor can then navigate through the exam in any order using gestures on a phone, tablet or browser. Patients can now easily see their own slit-lamp findings to better understand their own pathology.
As eye care faces a productivity crunch, our medical device will become increasingly essential. The US National Eye Institute predicts a 24% surge in ophthalmology demand by 2023 due to an aging population, yet the ophthalmology supply is expected to decline by 12% during the same period.
Lightfield Medical has developed three generations of prototypes and plans a US product release in late Summer 2025. Our intellectual property portfolio includes four US and one UK patents, with ten additional applications pending. We are led by a team of world-renowned ophthalmologists, including four past presidents of ESCRS, ASCRS, ISRS, and AECOS.
Our device will empower eye doctors to streamline patient care by delegating exam acquisition to technicians. Imagine a scenario where post-operative or brief exam patients are seen by a technician at a satellite office conveniently located near their homes. The exam can be reviewed by an ophthalmologist between surgeries. Findings and instructions can be promptly communicated to the patient via a quick video text message.
Our product will revolutionize eye care by fully documenting the entire slit-lamp exam for the first time. This advancement enables the comparison of eye exams from visit to visit and from doctor to doctor. The standardized lighting and viewing angles will create a homogeneous image database for artificial intelligence.