Access to medicine is one of the most  substantial issues in medical field, including in ophthalmology. In many areas worldwide, including developed countries, the accessibility to ophthalmologists is extremely low, as many of them operate mostly in large urban centers. For example, according to official data, in the U.S. alone, approximately 75M people suffer from limited access to medical services. This lack of accessibility leads to late diagnosis of eye diseases as well as blindness, all that can be prevented if diagnosed on time. Moreover, this lack of accessible ophthalmology services makes the required medical monitoring following a treatment such as surgery or medicinal treatments way more difficult.

Such diagnosis is done with the Slit Lamp, the main examination tool used by ophthalmologists. This tool is used to examine all parts of the eye, using a slit of light and microscopic inspection. This tool was invented more than 100 years ago, and every diagnosis made with it requires a physical appointment made by the patients with ophthalmologists.

The solution

SlitLED is developing  a unique system that enables ophthalmologists, for the first time, to perform a full examination of all eye parts on a distant patient, all live and in full control by the physician, as if the patient was at his clinic.

SlitLED’s system is a split of the traditional Slit lamp into two separate units: the physician’s unit and the patient’s unit.

The physician’s unit will be placed in his clinic and will allow the physician full control of the patients’ unit. The patient’s unit will be located at a service point such as a local clinic or an optical store nearby his place of residence. There, a local staff member will assist in all preparations required for the distant examination.

During the examination, the physician can operate and manipulate the patient’s unit, live and in a dynamic manner, while holding a face-to-face video call, thus fully controlling the examination and supplying the patient with a clinical diagnosis, as if they were both at the ophthalmologist’s clinic.

The company’s technology

Thanks to its unique technology, SlitLED leads ophthalmology to the 21^st century, while allowing ophthalmologists to perform the “traditional” eye test on a distant patient, professionally and credibly as they would in their clinic.

Previous attempts and studies aimed to create a remotely controlled Slit lamp failed, and did not manage to create a commercial tool, since when trying to perform such an examination remotely, significant technological limitations  rose and remained unresolved, until SlitLED overcame them.

Let’s illustrate one of these limitations, and the SlitlLED’s solution:

The physician tries to aim the ray of light at a desired spot in the distant patient’s eye, but he is unable to do so since the patient’s eye moves faster than latencies due to communication and motor movement delays in the distant device.

By gently moving the slit of light to the right: The difference between the desired outcome and the common situation as a result of the movement of the examined eye, is demonstrated:

SlitLED’s technology is patent approved, enabling to project multiple light slits simultaneously and to photoshoot them all together by freezing the image received. This image is afterwards separated by image processing into multiple images, each containing a single slit of light. These pictures will be presented to the physician according to his instructions, allowing him to dynamically scan all the parts of the patient’s eye, with the ray of light, similar to his “traditional” work with the Slit lamp and at least at the same credibility.

This technology is unique as it allows the physician to perform the eye examination without any latency, despite the great distance between the patient and the ophthalmologist.

The company has developed a system proving that the company’s concept for distant examination  is actually working. It was highly endorsed by leading ophthalmologists, in Israel and in the U.S.

Moreover, an optical design of the patient’s side was already performed, thus applying the patent, as well as other clinical-technological solutions.

Product’s advantages

• Distant examinations – As mentioned, SlitLED’s system solves a critical issue in nowadays ophthalmology, health disparities.
• Speed and credibility – Thanks to the unique technology of the company, the traditional face-to-face appointment can be done despite the distance, while overcoming the latency in a distant examination system. No other product in the market supplies such great advantage in Teleophthalmology.
• Anyone can use it – Thanks to the technology of SlitLED, the examination is simple and therefore every technician or assistant, after receiving training, can use the device, thus increasing the usability of it. Thus, the ophthalmologist would be able to perform his work with high medical confidence.
• Clinical improvement – As a result of the high separation ability of the system, it allows to identify diseases more accurately and reliably   than ordinary check-ups, nowadays.
• Examinations’ documentation – SlitLED’s unique technology offers digital and visual documentation of the tests via the company’s servers, thus allowing to perform advanced and sophisticated monitoring of different tests’ results and compare them.
• Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) – Since the information is stored on the cloud, with the related physician’s diagnosis, the system enables the integration of advanced learning abilities and additional improvements in eye tests.