Access to medicine is one of the most substantial issues in the medical field, ophthalmology included. In many areas worldwide – Including developed countries – the accessibility to eye physicians is extremely low, as many of them operate mostly in large urban centers. For example, according to official data approximately 75M people suffer from limited access to medical services in the U.S. alone. This lack of accessibility leads to late diagnosis of eye diseases, to visual impairment and even blindness, mostly preventable if diagnosed on time. Moreover, this lack of accessible ophthalmic services makes the post-surgical checkups extremely difficult.

Such diagnoses are performed today with a slit lamp, the main examination tool used by eye physicians. This tool is used to examine all parts of the eye, using a slit of light and microscopic inspection. This tool was invented over 100 years ago, and every diagnosis requires a physical appointment made by the patients arriving at the clinic.    

The solution

For the first time SlitLED is developing a unique system that enables eye physicians to perform a full examination of the entire eye of from a distance, in real-time and fully controlled by the physician as if the patient was present at the clinic.

SlitLED’s system is a splitting 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 their 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 optometry store near their 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 dynamically, 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 eye physician’s clinic.

The company’s technology

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

Previous attempts and studies aimed at creating a remotely-controlled slit lamp have failed to provide a commercial tool due to significant technological limitations that remained unresolved – until SlitLED overcame them!

Let’s illustrate one of these limitations, and 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 the latencies caused by communication and motor movement delays in the remote device.

SlitLED’s patent-approved technology

Completely bypasses the issue by projecting multiple slits of light simultaneously and collecting complete image of the eye. This image is then separated by image processing into multiple images, each containing a single slit of light. These images can be navigated by the physician, allowing dynamically scanning all the parts of the patient’s eye – similar to the “traditional” work with the slit lamp and providing at least the same quality of examination.

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 physician.

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

Moreover, an optical design of the patient’s device was made, which applies to the patent and to other clinical-technological solutions.

The Product’s advantages

• Preventing infection risk - Eliminating the need for a physical interaction between the physician and the patient, preventing the risk of infections such as the latest Coronavirus epidemic.
• Distant examinations – SlitLED’s system solves a critical issue in nowadays ophthalmology, tackling health disparities between communities.
• Complete control by the physician – Thanks to the technology of SlitLED, the examination is simple and therefore every technician or any other assistant, after receiving training, can assist the remote eye physician. Thus, the physician would be able to gain a complete control over the patient’s unit and work with complete medical confidence.
• Improved patient’s cooperation – As a result of the very short illumination duration, the patient will find it easier to cooperate compared to the traditional slit lamp examination.
• Better physician-patient trust – Due to the bidirectional and real time tele-conference, the physician is able to control the examination procedure according to the patient’s complaints. The patient is confident in the examination procedure and can receive explanations regarding the findings and the required treatment.
• Minimizing physician’s travel – The eye-physician is able to conduct examinations from anywhere, thus saving time on traveling between different clinics. The on-call senior physician may advice the duty resident, even from home at late hours.
• High-resolution examination for clinical improvement – As a result of the high separation ability of the system, it allows identifying diseases more accurately and reliably compared to ordinary check-ups.
• Medical visual documentation – SlitLED’s unique technology offers digital and visual documentation of the tests via the company’s servers, thus allowing advanced and sophisticated monitoring of different test results and track medical changes.
• Integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) – Since the information is stored on the cloud along with the physician’s diagnosis, the system enables the integration of advanced learning capabilities and additional improvements in eye tests.