miLens (contact lenses)

2023: Product Announcement

In mid-May 2023, the California startup Smartlens announced the development of smart ones contact lenses capable of monitoring intraocular pressure in patients with. glaucoma The product was called miLens.

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases characterized by a constant or periodic increase in intraocular pressure above an acceptable level. As a result, the field of view deteriorates, visual acuity decreases and optic atrophy can occur. There are drops that help reduce intraocular pressure, but to achieve their maximum effectiveness, a change in dosage is required depending on the patient's current condition. Usually, the pressure is checked by the doctor once every few months, but the value can become dangerously high at any time between such control measurements. The miLens product is just designed to solve the problem.

miLens lenses

The novelty is a soft contact lens that can be worn and removed daily. The device has a sealed microfuidal canal that passes along the perimeter of the iris of the eye in the form of a ring without overlapping the field of view. This channel is partially filled with non-toxic fluid and has graduated numerical marks.

As the patient's intraocular pressure increases, his cornea bulges and presses on miLens. This exposure pushes the fluid in the lens up the channel - the higher the pressure, the more the fluid will rise. Using an external camera, the user can get a close-up of miLens and determine the current value of intraocular pressure from numerical labels.

A clinical study of 25 patients with glaucoma found that miLens readings closely correspond to the figures obtained using the "gold standard" - Goldman's applanation tonometry method.^[1]

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