Timothy Nelson, a student at the Flinders University in Australia, has developed a simulator to help health professionals learn how to perform ophthalmological examinations:
Final year engineering student Tim Nelson has won the IEE International Premium competition for the EyeSim, a unique pair of robotic eyes that can mimic the response of human eyes. The EyeSim was developed to provide a platform for medical trainees and professionals to practice ophthalmic examinations. The robot allows a greater ability to study the human eye responses providing students with a wider range of possible abnormalities than when training with real patients.
This is pretty cool. Many residents are a little shaky on their ophthalmoscope skills. Yet the eye is the window to the vasculature, the only place in the body we can examine venules and arterioles in their native setting. Plus, it is the only place where the central nevous system can be seen. With the rise of simulator mannequins for anesthesia and emergency medicine training, hopefully this eye-sim will find its way into medical schools (if its as good as it’s hyped, it surely will).
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(hat tip: Engadget)