Bausch + Lomb has continued to celebrate its rich 166 year history with a series of events in Australia at which research and development experts from its USA team spoke to ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses and optometrists.
Speaking in Sydney were Brian McCary, Director, Innovation and Design, and Gary Guenthner, Research and Development Engineering Fellow.
Mr Guenthner introduced the audience to Bausch + Lomb’s enVista monofocal (MX60) and enVista Toric (MX60T) intraocular lenses (IOL) and described the methodology behind the development of the lens material, the optic design, the mechanical design, the manufacturing process of the lens itself, and its validation.
He said that the hydrophobic acrylic lens material is resistant to scratches from forceps during handling and insertion, has a UV absorbing filter and is “truly glistening free”.
The lens is inherently aberration free, so even if the IOL is decentered, Mr Guenthner said that it doesn’t induce higher order aberrations, it handles tilt better, and the effective lens power is unaffected by the size of the pupil.
With its thin optic design, the enVista IOL can be injected through an incision as small as 2.2 mm. The lens also has strong haptics, with an appropriate amount of haptic compression force which helps the IOL to fit and center well into the capsular bag without causing striae.
Bausch + Lomb has met surgeons’ demand for a lens that unfolds more quickly by modifying the percentage of two components in the lens material: the poly(EG)PEA and styrene. This “enhanced material” has a lower glass transition temperature which allows the IOL to unfold more quickly when the eye is at a lower temperature during the surgery.
Stressing the attention to detail in the manufacturing process, Mr Guenthner said that every enVista lens is manually checked and inspected for dimensions, power, resolution, and cosmetics. Later this year, Bausch + Lomb will release the MX60E and MX60ET – enVista monofocal and toric IOLs made with the enhanced material and supplied in a preloaded injector that is “very simple to use”.
EYETELLIGENCE CONNECTIVITY
In a fascinating look into the future, Brian McCary spoke about eyeTelligence Connectivity – Bausch + Lomb’s cloud connected surgical information platform that aims to improve efficiencies and patient outcomes for surgeons using Stellaris Elite vision enhancement systems.
Initially, eyeTelligence Connectivity effectively connects surgeons and ophthalmic nurses to the company’s sales and field service to enable equipment to be remotely monitored and maintained, and to facilitate technical support in real time. Additionally, users can access machine-generated surgical data, such as procedure times using tablet based applications.
In the future, the technology will enable potential new features such as voice recognition for enhanced efficiency and will connect into multiple Bausch and Lomb machines. Importantly, as a data gateway, it will also provide access to imagery and predictive analytics sourced from surgical experiences worldwide, as well as electronic medical records.
While the first App for sharing and viewing data is currently in Beta testing, Bausch + Lomb is using the eyeTelligence cloud connection to provide technical assistance in the United States and has been able to use the data access to support investigations by surgeons. Bausch + Lomb is awaiting approval for distribution in Europe.
Mr McCary said that eyeTelligence user applications will be valuable for training, managing and mentoring registrars, for evaluating new techniques, and for selflearning by “tunneling down into particular aspects of surgery”.
eyeTelligence is expected to be available in Australia and New Zealand next year.
