• Popular
    • Medicine
    • Radiology
    • Cardiology
    • Surgery
    • Nanomedicine
    • Military Medicine
    • Rehab
  • Categories
    • Exclusive
    • A-D
      • Anesthesiology
      • Art
      • Cardiac Surgery
      • Cardiology
      • Critical Care
      • Dentistry
      • Dermatology
      • Diagnostics
    • E-I
      • Emergency Medicine
      • ENT
      • Genetics
      • Geriatrics
      • GI
      • Informatics
    • M-N
      • Medicine
      • Military Medicine
      • Nanomedicine
      • Net News
      • Neurology
      • Neurosurgery
      • Nuclear Medicine
    • O-P
      • Ob/Gyn
      • Oncology
      • Ophthalmology
      • Orthopedic Surgery
      • Pathology
      • Pediatrics
      • Plastic Surgery
      • Psychiatry
      • Public Health
    • R-V
      • Radiation Oncology
      • Radiology
      • Rehab
      • Reproductive Medicine
      • Space Medicine
      • Sports Medicine
      • Surgery
      • Thoracic Surgery
      • Urology
      • Vascular Surgery
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Submit PR
  • About
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
    • RSS
  • Submit PR
  • Log in
Medgadget
Medgadget
  • Popular
    • Medicine
      Flexible Sensors Detect Heavy Metals in Sweat

      Flexible Sensors Detect Heavy Metals in Sweat

      Nanopore Sensor to Study Protein Aggregation in Neurodegeneration

      Nanopore Sensor to Study Protein Aggregation in Neurodegeneration

      Biobots Use Optogenetic Muscle Actuators for Movement

      Biobots Use Optogenetic Muscle Actuators for Movement

      Exciting Medtech at the Healthcareᐩ Expo Taiwan

      Exciting Medtech at the Healthcareᐩ Expo Taiwan

    • Radiology
      Ultrasound Tornado Rapidly Disrupts Blood Clots

      Ultrasound Tornado Rapidly Disrupts Blood Clots

      Exciting Medtech at the Healthcareᐩ Expo Taiwan

      Exciting Medtech at the Healthcareᐩ Expo Taiwan

      Fluorescence Imaging System Illuminates Tumor Depth

      Fluorescence Imaging System Illuminates Tumor Depth

      Soft Robot Grows Like a Plant to Travel Through Tight Spaces

      Soft Robot Grows Like a Plant to Travel Through Tight Spaces

    • Cardiology
      Belt Monitors Heart Failure Patients

      Belt Monitors Heart Failure Patients

      Camera Measures Blood Pressure with Quick Look

      Camera Measures Blood Pressure with Quick Look

      Monitoring Congestive Heart Failure Through Speech: Interview with Tamir Tal, CEO of Cordio Medical

      Monitoring Congestive Heart Failure Through Speech: Interview with Tamir Tal, CEO of Cordio Medical

      Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin

      Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin

    • Surgery
      Microneedle Bandage for Hemostatic Control

      Microneedle Bandage for Hemostatic Control

      Biobots Use Optogenetic Muscle Actuators for Movement

      Biobots Use Optogenetic Muscle Actuators for Movement

      Implantable Device Adheres to Muscle, Treats Atrophy

      Implantable Device Adheres to Muscle, Treats Atrophy

      Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin

      Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin

    • Nanomedicine
      Extra Hot Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy

      Extra Hot Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy

      Making Tumors Tastier for the Immune System

      Making Tumors Tastier for the Immune System

      Improved Membrane Coating for Anti-Cancer Nanoparticles

      Improved Membrane Coating for Anti-Cancer Nanoparticles

      Magnetic Bacteria Target Tumors

      Magnetic Bacteria Target Tumors

    • Military Medicine
      Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin

      Device Measures Hemoglobin More Accurately in Dark Skin

      Fingertip Sensor Measures Lithium Levels in Sweat

      Fingertip Sensor Measures Lithium Levels in Sweat

      Fabric Makes Electricity from Movement to Power Wearables

      Fabric Makes Electricity from Movement to Power Wearables

      Wearable Uses Microneedles to Track Metabolism

      Wearable Uses Microneedles to Track Metabolism

    • Rehab
      Smart Walking Stick for Visually Impaired People

      Smart Walking Stick for Visually Impaired People

      Implantable Device Adheres to Muscle, Treats Atrophy

      Implantable Device Adheres to Muscle, Treats Atrophy

      Non-Invasive Spinal Modulation for Cerebral Palsy

      Non-Invasive Spinal Modulation for Cerebral Palsy

      Implanted Magnets for Prosthetic Control

      Implanted Magnets for Prosthetic Control

  • Categories
    • Exclusive
    • A-D
      • Anesthesiology
      • Art
      • Cardiac Surgery
      • Cardiology
      • Critical Care
      • Dentistry
      • Dermatology
      • Diagnostics
    • E-I
      • Emergency Medicine
      • ENT
      • Genetics
      • Geriatrics
      • GI
      • Informatics
    • M-N
      • Medicine
      • Military Medicine
      • Nanomedicine
      • Net News
      • Neurology
      • Neurosurgery
      • Nuclear Medicine
    • O-P
      • Ob/Gyn
      • Oncology
      • Ophthalmology
      • Orthopedic Surgery
      • Pathology
      • Pediatrics
      • Plastic Surgery
      • Psychiatry
      • Public Health
    • R-V
      • Radiation Oncology
      • Radiology
      • Rehab
      • Reproductive Medicine
      • Space Medicine
      • Sports Medicine
      • Surgery
      • Thoracic Surgery
      • Urology
      • Vascular Surgery
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Submit PR
  • About
  • Log in
  • Submit PR
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
    • RSS

OcuMet Beacon Leads to Earlier Detection of Retinal Disorders: an Interview

February 22nd, 2016 Allison Bedell Exclusive, Ophthalmology

OcumetOcuSciences, based in Ann Arbor, MI, has developed an instrument that will provide information to enable earlier diagnosis of eye conditions including glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and macular degeneration. Currently, in the case of diabetic retinopathy, it is only after being diagnosed with diabetes that a patient will begin to have their retinas checked regularly. Typically, the ophthalmologist utilizes structural imaging methods to look for leakage, hemorrhages, or other microvasculature changes. They determine at what point there are enough “little blotches” on the retinal images that suggest that there is an active disease state. However, by that time the disease has been active for many years and significant irreversible damage has occurred.  OcuSciences’ technology is able to detect damage at the very early stages of diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and macular degeneration, empowering the physician to be proactive with the treatment and monitoring of these disorders.

OcuMet Beacon Image

OcuSciences’ device, the OcuMet Beacon, produces a rapid, quantitative, and non-invasive measure that will give a snapshot of a patient’s retinal health to clinicians. It can suggest the presence of disease 5-10 years earlier using a technology called Retinal Metabolic Analysis (RMA). OcuSciences’ founders discovered that when exposing the retina to a specific wavelength of blue light, mitochondrial-bound flavoproteins that were not contributing effectively to energy production in the cell, due to impairment by an underlying retinal disease, emitted green fluorescence. In contrast, healthy flavoproteins did not react to the light. The Beacon was developed to leverage this behavior to detect the progression of disease. The Beacon displays the results as a two-dimensional fundus image with the level of fluorescence displayed (shown to the right) so that damage can be localized. It also summarizes the data collected in the scan by providing an average fluorescence and a plot of the number of image pixels at each fluorescence intensity, showing the variance in the fluorescence throughout the image to assess heterogeneity. A high average intensity and a high variance are both signs suggesting possible disease.

Use of the Beacon requires a quick, non-invasive image of the eye without the need for injection of any dye or compound.  The test takes only five minutes and can be performed in a clinical setting.  The device has been used by a number of clinical sites for investigational purposes, and the technique has a half-dozen peer-reviewed publications showing promising results.

We had a chance to discuss the technology and future of OcuSciences with President and COO Kurt Riegger.

Allison Bedell, Medgadget: What is the story behind OcuSciences and the Beacon?

Kurt Riegger: Our company was founded as a spin-out of the University ofPicture1 Michigan Kellogg Eye Center by Howard Petty and Victor Elner.  Each of them has a background and clinical interest in assessing disease process on the cellular level.  They developed a laboratory technique that they used to test retinal cells for response to oxidative stress based on analyzing the fluorescence of the mitochondrial-bound flavoproteins. When light of a particular wavelength is shown on them, the amount of fluorescence changes depending on the relative ‘health’ and ability of the flavoproteins to produce cellular energy.  And because the retina is one of the most energetic tissues in the body, an issue in the mitochondria of the retina reveals a biomarker of early disease.

Initially we did some studies which found that people who have diabetes, including undiagnosed cases, experience significant damage to their retinal tissue.  This damage is visible even before you begin to see it in other imaging modalities like OCT.  We saw the opportunity to leverage Petty and Elner’s method to create a device that can detect a very early signature of disease using a quick test in the clinic.

The challenge was to take that concept and translate that into the human eye, an environment that is already very rich in other sources of fluorescence.  Our device uses a very specific, narrow wavelength of light for the illumination and includes a very specialized optical train with a sensitive detector that will distinguish the faint signal coming specifically from the mitochondrial-bound flavoproteins without confusing it with the other sources of fluorescence. The amount of green fluorescence you’re getting back is very faint so you need a very efficient camera.  Our detector and optical path efficiency is very high.

Medgadget: What is the advantage to diagnosing these patients sooner? What can be done?

Kurt Riegger: For many patients, it is difficult to diagnose certain eye conditions, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, until certain disease signs present.  RMA offers the ability to detect the earliest stages of these disease processes in order to implement treatment at a much earlier stage to prevent typical disease complications.  In the

case of diabetes, it allows for earlier detection of eye damage in all diabetics and can even help detect the disease in undiagnosed diabetics and pre-diabetics.  We find that showing a patient a quantitative measurement demonstrating that their eyes are being harmed is a powerful motivating tool.  It also allows immediate feedback to the patient and clinician to assess if therapy is improving the retinal health, and can help the physician decide whether to increase the dose of a certain therapy or try alternative therapies.  In addition, there are many drugs being developed for eye disease that are directly targeting mitochondrial function and oxidative stress mechanisms.  Some of the clinical sites using our device already are pairing our measures with these new therapeutic actions.  These new treatments have had some very good success, but now they are looking further into when to treat, how often to treat, and how aggressively to provide the therapy; our device is part of those trials.

Medgadget: What is your vision for the future of your device?

Kurt Riegger: Currently, our device is an adjunctive device that physicians use as part of a mosaic.  Our next steps are FDA approval and while we are focused on ophthalmology and optometry, we would like to bring a smaller and simpler device into primary care doctors’ offices.  Today, you get your blood pressure taken, your temperature taken, and your weight measured, and with our device, you’d also get a quick scan of your eye to evaluate the metabolic health of your retina.  Our device could screen for patients who have undiagnosed cases of diabetes and pre-diabetes, patients who have developed gestational diabetes during pregnancy, and even patients whose medications for another condition are inadvertently affecting their retinal health—oftentimes these side effects go undiagnosed until the patient is approaching blindness.  Our device could track a patient’s condition and intervene before there is significant damage.

divider

More at: OcuMet Beacon…

Allison Bedell

Allison is a Chicago-based engineer and user-centered designer with experience innovating in medical devices, consumer health products, and healthcare IT solutions. She holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering and MS in Engineering Design and Innovation, both from Northwestern University.

Sponsored
C-mo Medical Solutions extends seed investment round to €4.8 million to transform cough monitoring

C-mo Medical Solutions extends seed investment round to €4.8 million to transform cough monitoring

New Clarius Power Fan HD3 Delivers a First for Handheld Ultrasound: Continuous Scanning

New Clarius Power Fan HD3 Delivers a First for Handheld Ultrasound: Continuous Scanning

Fluidx Unveils New Embolic for Neurovascular Use

Fluidx Unveils New Embolic for Neurovascular Use

Annalise.ai and Nuance Communications (a Microsoft Company) Announce Key Partnership to Improve Patient Outcomes with Workflow-Integrated AI

Annalise.ai and Nuance Communications (a Microsoft Company) Announce Key Partnership to Improve Patient Outcomes with Workflow-Integrated AI

PT Genie Unveils New Brand Identity Reflecting Company’s Transformation and Focus on the Global Future of AI and Machine Learning in Digital Healthcare

interviews & reviews
Balance Boards to Stay Active in the Offfice: Interview with Joel Heath, CEO of FluidStance 

Balance Boards to Stay Active in the Offfice: Interview with Joel Heath, CEO of FluidStance 

Exciting Medtech at the Healthcareᐩ Expo Taiwan

Exciting Medtech at the Healthcareᐩ Expo Taiwan

Medgadget Visits Healthcareᐩ Expo Taiwan

Medgadget Visits Healthcareᐩ Expo Taiwan

Diabetes Management Tech for Type II patients: Interview with Jeffrey Brewer, CEO of Bigfoot Biomedical

Diabetes Management Tech for Type II patients: Interview with Jeffrey Brewer, CEO of Bigfoot Biomedical

Monitoring Congestive Heart Failure Through Speech: Interview with Tamir Tal, CEO of Cordio Medical

Monitoring Congestive Heart Failure Through Speech: Interview with Tamir Tal, CEO of Cordio Medical

In-Office Pediatric Ear Tube Procedures: Interview with Preceptis Medical's Greg Mielke

In-Office Pediatric Ear Tube Procedures: Interview with Preceptis Medical's Greg Mielke

Symani Microsurgical Robotic System: Interview with Mark Toland, CEO of Medical Microinstruments

Symani Microsurgical Robotic System: Interview with Mark Toland, CEO of Medical Microinstruments

  • Subscribe
  • Contact us
  • Submit
  • About
  • Back to top
Medgadget

Medical technologies transform the world! Join us and see the progress in real time. At Medgadget, we report the latest technology news, interview leaders in the field, and file dispatches from medical events around the world since 2004.

  • About
  • Editorial policies
  • Contact
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy
  • Submit press release
  • Advertise
© Medgadget, Inc. All rights reserved. | The Medical Revolution Will Be Blogged.
Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. Ads are what helps us bring you premium content! Thank you!
Posting....
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Email