Eyeworld

EW NEWS & OPINION August 2017 25 Reference 1. Shen BY and Mukai S. A portable, inex- pensive, nonmydriatic fundus camera based on the Raspberry Pi computer. J Ophthalmol. 2017. Epub 2017 Mar 15. light," he said. They then added a touchscreen and a battery, which brought the cost to less than $180 to build. Another key component here was a 20 D lens, which, while expensive, practically every ophthal- mologist has. With an eye toward non-ophthalmologists, they found a disposable one for around $10 to use here. "That was the last part of the puzzle," Dr. Mukai said. While the images with this are not as sharp as with commercially available cameras, it does the job, he finds. "We're concerned about interpretable images, and I think these certainly are interpretable," Dr. Mukai said. Real world use Dr. Mukai envisions the camera, which has not been through FDA review, as something that could be particularly helpful in Third World countries. "I was in Haiti last year, and the ophthalmologists are using very primitive ophthalmoscopes— they're hardly seeing anything," he said, adding that with diabetes common there, this older technolo- gy misses critical diagnoses in many cases. He hopes a system like the one he has developed can make a difference in diagnosing and treat- ing such populations. One improvement that Dr. Mukai still hopes to make is to swap the current touchscreen and battery for a smartphone. These account for about half the cost of the current device, he explained. This would also allow for immediate access to the internet as well as telephone platforms, which would lend itself to telemedicine. Dr. Mukai hopes that by devel- oping this inexpensive model, it may serve to drive down the cost of the expensive devices. "One of the cameras we use costs $200,000," he said. "Most places cannot even buy one let alone use it." Dr. Mukai is not interested in going through the patenting process here or starting a company. The entire project is open source, he said. "In the paper is a shopping list of where we got everything and in- structions on how to build it includ- ing the codes we wrote," Dr. Mukai said. He wants others to have access to all of this for two reasons: "I want people to build it themselves, but also because we can't do every- thing," he said. "We want people to customize it to their use or innovate on top of it." EW K4-2018 right K4-2019 left Holland Holland DALK SCISSORS DALK SCISSORS K4-5075 These sharply curved scissors (right and left) feature miniature blades that closely match the radius of the previously dissected peripheral rim. The inner blade has a blunt, horizontally-oriented, spatulated tip which keeps the scissors in the proper plane, minimizing inadvertent perforation. The delicate, shortened, outer blade allows the surgeon to trim the tissue near the wall in a precise fashion. Designed by Edward Holland, MD Cincinnati, Ohio to safely excise stromal tissue This Vannas-style scissors has straight "micro blades" that are steeply angled to facilitate the dissection of stromal tissue out to the periphery. The distal tips of each blade are rounded and blunt to help protect underlying tissue while cutting. ® 973-989-1600 • 800-225-1195 • www.katena.com Watch it! KI-Adv-061917-Rev1 Editors' note: Dr. Mukai has no finan- cial interests related to his comments. Contact information Mukai: Shizuo_Mukai@meei.harvard.edu

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