Connected contact lens that tracks glaucoma progression clears the FDA

Triggerfish smart contact lens

Switzerland-based Sensimed has received an FDA clearance for its connected contact lens, called Triggerfish, which helps physicians track the progression of glaucoma in patients.

Triggerfish is a prescription device indicated for people 22 or older.“Although with this approval we have obtained US marketing clearance, our goal for the upcoming months is not to immediately launch the product but rather to work closely with the glaucoma community to design and execute a major post-approval study to confirm the use of the Sensimed Triggerfish signal to predict the course of progression of the disease,” Sensimed CEO David Bailey said in a statement. “The overall aim is to build additional clinical utility for the device and establish ocular volume change patterns as a significant stand-alone reference biomarker for use in the management and treatment of glaucoma.”

Triggerfish is a prescription device indicated for people 22 or older to detect the peak patterns of variation in intraocular pressure to identify the window of time to measure intraocular pressure by conventional clinical methods. The sensor-laden contact lens can record continuous ocular dimensional changes for 24 hours, and send the data gathered to a recorder that users wear around their neck. From the recorder, the data is transferred to a physician’s computer via Bluetooth.

It, however, is not the first smart contact lens we’ve seen. The best known such product is designed by Google’s Life Sciences division but it has a different purpose — it was envisioned to measure blood glucose levels from one’s tears. Since its original announcement, Google managed to protect its IP with a patent, and has later teamed-up with Novartis eye care division Alcon to eventually turn it into a real-world product. We yet have to hear how that project is advancing, though.

[Via: mobihealthnews]