EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/422211
3 EW NEWS & OPINION Earlier this year, Alcon and Google announced a partnership to develop smart lens technology, a topic that officials discussed at the recent OIS@AAO T he partnership of Alcon (Fort Worth, Texas) and Google (Mountain View, Calif.) is a topic of interest to the ophthalmic world, especially with the collaboration of the two companies on the new smart contact lens project. In July, Novartis (Basel, Switzerland) an- nounced plans to license Google's smart lens technology, looking to "transform eye care and further enhance Alcon's pipeline and global leadership in contact lenses and intraocular lenses," according to a press release from the company. The partnership will utilize Google's expertise in technology and electronics, and Alcon's expertise in the medical and pharmaceutical space. Novartis' goal is to target 2 main patient groups with this technology: diabetic patients and those with presbyopia. A technology like this could help diabetic patients with their disease by providing "a continuous, minimally invasive measurement of the body's glucose levels," the press release said. For presbyopia patients, a smart contact lens could provide accommodative vision correction. The lens came out of Google X, the research unit at Google that is also investigating a self-driving car and the well-known Google Glass eyewear. The same unit is also working on developing a cancer and heart attack detector that works through a sensor worn on the wrist, which recently made headlines. At the recent Ophthalmol- ogy Innovation Summit (OIS) at the 2014 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) meeting in Chicago, panelists Laurent Attias, head of global commercial strategy at Alcon, Brian P. Otis, PhD, founder of the smart contact lens project with Google X, and Franck Leveiller, PhD, head of R&D for vision care at Alcon, discussed the topic in depth for the ophthalmic audience. Unique backgrounds Gil Kliman, MD, managing director of InterWest Partners, Menlo Park, Calif., who moderated the panel session on the topic, said members of Alcon and Google X are involved in a multidisciplinary project and like an "'Ocean's Eleven' team, bring different expertise to this." Each person has a unique background, he said. Dr. Otis discussed how he first got involved with the technology and this particular project. Having a background in the semi-conductor industry helped to bring him onto the project, he said. Additional- ly, Dr. Otis did academia work on neural implants, like brain computer interfaces that "required pushing the limits of power consumption and size of various semi-conductors." The confluence of those created the possibility for the extreme miniaturization of these types of products, he said. Dr. Leveiller has been in the medical device industry for about 5 years. Alcon is looking to address unmet medical needs. "And in vision care, we are developing contact lenses," Dr. Leveiller said. One unmet need in that cate- gory is for the correction of presby- opia. It is like trying to develop a camera that can autofocus and sense the distance that the patient is look- ing, Dr. Leveiller said. For this, you need a computer to analyze it. "It was clear to us that the next evolution for contact lenses would be like putting a computer into a contact lens," he said. When Google made the announcement that it was possible to minimize this technol- ogy to the extent that things like a battery, antenna, sensors, and a computer could go into such a small object, it was amazing, he said. Mr. Attias has found particular relevance because he has worked in so many different areas with Alcon. Being able to see the unmet need out there is incredibly important, he said. He works across all the divisions of Alcon, helping to determine what the commercial outlook may be. Alcon, Google form unique collaboration by EyeWorld Staff December 2014 Gil Kliman, MD, moderates a panel discussion on the Alcon and Google partnership at the OIS meeting in Chicago. Laurent Attias, Brian Otis, PhD, and Franck Leveiller, PhD, spoke on the panel. Source: EyeWorld Google X Dr. Otis discussed Google X, specifically the smart contact lens project. When it started, he said, there were a lot of technological risks faced, but there was also a desire to do something risky that could have a large benefit. There are 3 key ingredients to a Google X project, he said. The first is a huge problem that could affect a large number of people. The second is a radical solution that may seem like science fiction at first. The third ingredient is breakthrough technol- ogy that can be applied to turn the science fiction into a reality, Dr. Otis said. "I think that's what we've done over the past couple of years in the smart contact lens project," he said. Mr. Attias said that the collab- oration between Alcon and Google is an interesting one. The unmet need was a big interest for Alcon, he said. "We see in ophthalmology that the promise of outcomes is what we're trying to move toward." Developments in the digital space allow for a better understanding of the data that's produced by vari- ous devices, how to analyze it, and how to close that loop to provide this information to the doctor and 3 key ingredients to a Google X project 1. The first ingredient is a huge problem that could affect a large number of people. 2. The second ingredient is a radical solution that may seem like science fiction at first. 3. The third ingredient is breakthrough technology that can be applied to turn science fiction into a reality. continued on page 8