An eye for diagnosis

A new digital ophthalmoscope, devised by a team led by

, can provide doctors and optometrists with a hand-held eye disease diagnosis device equal to the power of hospital-based eye diagnosis cameras. It will also give optometrists the ability to email detailed eye maps of patients to specialist eye doctors.

Ophthalmoscopes, which act as an illuminated microscope for the eye, have changed little in design in the last century. As a result the effective operation of the device is said to be constrained by the skill, expertise and eyesight of the eye specialist.

The new digital ophthalmoscope (developed from a three-year research partnership bringing together the University of Warwick, ophthalmoscope manufacturer Keeler Optics, City University, and UCL) uses a combination of specialist lens digital imaging and lighting technology which for the first time allows a high quality digital image to be captured and recorded by an ophthalmoscope.