1. Advanced Optics for Ophthalmology
Jim Schwiegerling, PhD
Optical Sciences
Ophthalmology & Vision Sciences
University of Arizona

2. Accommodation
Relaxed ciliary muscle pulls zonules taut an flattens crystalline lens.
Constrict ciliary muscle releases tension on zonules and crystalline lens bulges.

3. Presbyopia
solidsmack.com/cad/the-mystery-of-the-disappearing-solidworks-drawing-view/
visionhelp.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/presbyopia-old-man-look-at-my-life/presbyopia2/

4. Presbyopia Your ability to accommodate reduces steadily with age.
Typically, you don’t notice
the effects until it affects your
ability to read comfortably.
This is presbyopia.

5. Scatter Scatter creates a large halo around light sources and
reduces contrast of a scene.
Tom van den Berg Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

6. Cataract
Cataracts are an opacification of the crystalline lens in the eye. Early stages cause reduce light levels and scatter. Advanced stages cause (preventable) blindness.
Cataract extraction with intraocular lens implantation is the most widely
performed surgery in the US. Roughly 20 million blind people worldwide due to cataracts.

7. Couching
telemedicine.orbis.org &
Wellcome Library London

8. Cataract Extraction 1735 – The French oculist
Jacques Daviel (1693–1762)
developed a method for the
removal of cataracts from
the eye

9. Aphakia

10. Harold Ridley Ridley noticed that shards from the canopy (PMMA)
of RAF pilots lodge in their eyes did not get rejected
by the body’s immune system. Proposed making an
implantable lens out of the material.

11. Intraocular Lenses (IOLs)

12. Reading Glasses Conventional IOLs fix cataracts, but not presbyopia.
Still need reading glasses to see
up close.

13. Multifocal IOLs Multifocal come in a variety of forms, Far
Near
Far
Multifocal come in a variety of forms,
but the basic concept is to have two
different powers simultaneously on a
single lens. One power allows for
distance vision, while the other allows
for near vision.
Variations in zone size, number of
zones, power distribution, progressives,
aspherics and diffractives all exist.

14. Simulated Images Multifocal Lens Single Vision Lens Distance Vision
Near Vision

15. Refractive Multifocal

16. Diffraction Grating

17. Diffractive Lens Addition of refractive lens
causes light to converge to
two points +1

18. Diffractive Multifocal

19. Diffractive IOLs
Refractive IOLs tend to have more visual artifacts compared to diffractive lenses.
Most multifocal IOLs today are diffractive lenses.
These lenses are also limited because they give two distinct planes of focus.

20. Trifocal Diffractive Lens
Alternating step heights
causes light to converge to
three points +2 +1

21. Diffractive IOLs
Bifocal Diffractive
Trifocal Diffractive

22. Tech Launch Arizona

23. Accommodating IOL

24. Accommodating IOL

25. Cataract Treatment Evolution
Lens displacement or removal – Blindness to light perception.
Aphakic Spectacles – Vision, limited field of view.
IOL – Normal distance vision.
Multifocal IOL – Distance and reading vision.
Trifocal IOL – Distance, intermediate and reading vision.
Accommodating IOL – Can focus at all ranges, like young healthy eye (in progress).

26. What’s Needed in General
76 million baby boomers.
An understanding that people want “normal” or even enhanced abilities in their medical devices and treatments.
Communication between physicians, scientists and engineers.
Time & Support.

27. What’s Needed
Materials which are biocompatible and mechanical properties can be defined. (e.g. curvature changing IOL and phaco ersatz).
Chemistry & Biochemistry, BME, AME.

28. What’s Needed
New imaging modalities to visualize crystalline lens in vivo. e.g. OCT, High-frequency Ultrasound, MRI.
Medical Imaging, Optical Sciences, ECE

29. What’s Needed
Miniature electronics, batteries, wireless recharging, solar power.
ECE, Material Science, Optical Sciences

30. What’s Needed
Drugs which slow the formation of cataracts, or reduce the scatter from cataracts after they have formed.
Biochemistry, Pharmacology

31. What’s Needed Portable diagnostics & treatments.
Telemedicine, ECE, Optical Sciences

32. Summary
Thin slice of cataracts and their treatment, but many other medical conditions can be analyzed in the same way.
Many of the solutions are multidisciplinary. How to communicate needs and capabilities?
Strong and flexible Tech Transfer to work with medical device companies.