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Australian Government Invests in Detection and Management of Blinding Eye Disease and Diabetes Through Intelligent High Resolution Retinal Camera Development by Vision CRC

SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 19, 2013 /Medianet International=KYODO JBN/

    The most advanced technology for use in real-time detection and assessment

of common blinding eye disease and general health disorders will soon be

available to the world with stimulus funding provided for development by the

Australian Government's CRC Program. The imaging technology of the breakthrough

retinal camera is being developed by the Vision Cooperative Research Centre

(Vision CRC) based in Sydney with international partners in Australia, US,

China, India and Africa.

    The world's first intelligent retinal camera will accurately and rapidly

detect and eventually diagnose sight-threatening conditions such as diabetic

retinopathy and glaucoma. The camera is being designed for ease of use in the

most extreme environments so that it can be used by technical support staff and

in the most remote and under-served locations, especially to close the gap in

eye health in Australian Aboriginal communities.

    CEO of Vision CRC and Brien Holden Vision Institute, Professor Brien Holden

said today, "Medical devices of this nature are typically researched for use in

affluent populations and aimed at high-end commercial returns. This Intelligent

Retinal Camera (IRC) system will apply high resolution, multispectral imaging

in an economic but high technology instrument that will be affordable and

therefore accessible both in remote communities and in community health

locations and professional offices throughout the world.

    "Living in remote communities seriously disadvantages patients through lack

of access to optometrists and ophthalmologists. The IRC will detect, measure

and assess the potential for blinding disease thus preventing lengthy delay in

getting treatment to those in need in marginalised communities. Aboriginal

communities will be among the first to experience and benefit from this

technology thanks to the funding from the Australian Government recently

announced and the partnership with Aboriginal researchers and community health

experts."

    "Having spent the last 20 years researching and bringing to market and

communities around the world, solutions for correcting refractive error, we are

delighted that the Australian Government is backing our plan to piggyback onto

the systems developed to deliver vision correction, the capacity to simply and

effectively detect and manage blinding eye disease through retinal image

analysis," Professor Holden said.

    The imaging technology was first designed and developed by Professor Tom

Cornsweet, a medical technology veteran and icon based in Arizona, US, in a

social enterprise company Quantum Catch LLC that focuses on the design,

manufacture, and sale of affordable, high-quality, user friendly automatic

medical devices for detection and screening of diseases. At a crucial stage of

development of the retinal camera the Fred Hollows Foundation provided funding

grants.

    "The Vision CRC program has done what CRCs do best - bringing Australian

and world leading scientists, technologists, engineers, social scientists and

business people together to advance the social and economic benefit of

Australia and the world," said Professor Holden.

    "In this case it is a real dream team. We have brought together Tom

Cornsweet, CEO Peter Galen and the team at Quantum Catch; world leading vision

technologist, Professor Ho from the Brien Holden Vision Institute; the

Institute's Public Health Division led by Amanda Davis in Sydney and Professor

Kovin Naidoo from Durban, South Africa; the immense database and clinical

research genius of Professor Mingguang He, from China's leading ophthalmology

research Institute, the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre; our long-standing

colleagues at the LV Prasad Eye Institute in India; and the best Australia has

to offer through the Centre for Eye Research Australia's Professor Jonathan

Crowston; Aboriginal eye health expert Professor Hugh Taylor; Sandra Bailey,

CEO the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW and new

participant Ninti One; all in one team to help unlock the future of health

diagnostics.

    "This is especially exciting as it is intended that post-CRC the

infrastructure and systems will be in place to develop further diagnostics for

many of the most difficult and intractable general health and eye conditions,"

he added.

    EDITORS' NOTES

Vision CRC is one of Australia's most successful research organisations at

taking innovations to a world market and transforming lives; the CRC and its

predecessors having generated over AU$1.25 billion in research funding and

earned over AU$230 million in royalties.

    The Australian Government's contribution of AU$5million under the CRC

program will unlock a further AU$24.5 million in CRC and partner investment

towards developing this breakthrough technology, ensuring that the most

socially disadvantaged benefit from its development. The investment will also

put Vision CRC, Brien Holden Vision Institute and Quantum Catch at the very

forefront of global medical devices research and development.

    Vision CRC is comprised of Australian and international researchers engaged

in cutting edge projects, working with a range of leading industry

collaborators. The organisation was born from the Australian Government's CRC

program, which was established to advance Australia's capacity for innovation.

To learn more about the Vision CRC go to: www.visioncrc.org

    The Brien Holden Vision Institute is a world leading science, technology,

education and licensing not-for-profit organisation. For over 25 years the

Institute has worked with a global network of partners to advance eye research

and translate its discoveries into breakthrough products. It has developed

contact lenses that provide safer vision correction and is now focused on

creating revolutionary new products for detecting and managing the most common

eye conditions that affect the sight of billions globally. The Institute

provides postgraduate research opportunities for outstanding students from

around the world, fights disability through education and human resource

development in communities in need and delivers eye care to people in

underserved communities worldwide. To learn more visit website

www.brienholdenvision.org

    Quantum Catch is a term used to describe the process whereby photons are

absorbed by pigment molecules in the retinal photoreceptors and trigger a

cascade of events that lead to excitation of the next neural elements in the

visual system.

    Founded in 2009, Quantum Catch, LLC is a start-up limited liability company

registered in Delaware with a research and prototyping laboratory located in

Prescott, Arizona. Quantum Catch Corp. is a newly registered US organisation in

which Brien Holden Vision Institute became the majority share holder to cement

the company's on-going commitment to affordable, socially beneficial, high

quality technology infrastructure for health care for all people.

    Media Contact:

    Stephen Davis

    M: +61 450 661 695

    E: s.davis@brienholdenvision.org

    Hi res IMAGES available

    SOURCE: Brien Holden Vision Institute