Eyeworld

69 December 2015 EW MEETING REPORTER When thinking of how to tap into this ecosystem, he said, we need to be at the center of it and think about how to build relationships with entrepreneurs, key opinion leaders, and customers in order to be a "magnet" for all these great ideas. Listening and thinking about good ideas becomes important, as does understanding how to tap into the venture community. Finally, Mr. Saunders spoke about science. The science is really advancing, he said. Industry always used to be about chemistry, but with the Human Genome Project and the understanding of that progressing, there has been a better understand- ing of biology. Allergan was founded as an eyecare company, and Mr. Saunders said he recognizes how lucky he is to be part of this ecosystem "that really has a profound impact on people's lives." The Alcon and Google partnership OIS again featured a panel highlight- ing the Alcon (Fort Worth, Texas) and Google (Mountain View, Calif.) partnership. Laurent Attias and Franck Leveiller, PhD, both of Alcon, sat down with William Link, PhD, to talk about the innovation that can come from this partnership. Dr. Leveiller reviewed some of the details of how the partnership with Alcon first started. It is about finding a way to work at the inter- section between the eye and tech- nology, he said. Google had started to work with the smart lens platform before entering into the partnership with Alcon. They wanted to address huge problems, like the worldwide prevalence of diabetes. They were also looking to find a radical solu- tion to the disease, he said, and they were able to leverage a lot of break- through technologies that could be assembled together. Novartis/Alcon is very com- mitted to innovation, Dr. Leveiller said, and wants to address the large unmet medical needs and partici- pate in the revolution in healthcare. In July 2014, the company entered into the partnership with Google for collaboration on the smart lens platform. They agreed that there would be continued development of the smart lens platform for diabetes, but Alcon also knew that there were other diseases that the company was interested in addressing with this platform as well. Since the partner- ship with Google, Dr. Leveiller said efforts have been focused on bio- sensing and on functional improve- ment. "We are trying to combine the innovative mindset of Google with their capabilities of doing very fast prototyping and their [mastery] of miniaturization with our knowledge at Alcon of how to develop devices and how to launch products on the market," he said. Dr. Leveiller said that he sees success as launching a product that can be demonstrated to meet patients' needs and desires. We need to figure out what the minimum required product profile is to launch a product, he said. From an organizational stand- point, Dr. Leveiller said that success will be measured when Alcon work- ers can learn from Google colleagues new ways of developing products and moving innovation forward and when Google colleagues start gain- ing more medical device knowledge and experience. Editors' note: The speakers during the OIS sessions have financial interests with the companies they are representing. Predicting the future of corneal biomechanics applications Continued developments within corneal biomechanics can help surgeons enhance their preoperative screening, fill the so-called "preci- sion gap" in refractive planning, and make refractive surgery even safer and more predictable, said William J. Dupps Jr., MD, PhD, Cleveland. Dr. Dupps delivered the opening keynote at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Refrac- tive Surgery Subspecialty Day 2015, continued on page 70 View videos from AAO 2015: EWrePlay.org Nathan Radcliffe, MD, discusses novel devices for glaucoma surgery. View videos from AAO 2015: EWrePlay.org Amar Agarwal, MD, discusses a technique for using an anterior chamber trocar to treat a case with pseudophakic bullous keratopathy and a dislocated/broken IOL.

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