NeoLight's Vik Dudhia and Dale Isacks with Optimed's Robert Nyenkamp at the RANZCO NZ 2024 meeting in Auckland

Attracting attention on Optimed’s stand from paediatric ophthalmologists and ophthalmic nurses was NeoLight’s Icon retinal imaging system, designed specifically to screen premature babies both in large hospital settings and in more remote areas.

It’s a whole step up in technology, said Vik Dudhia, NeoLight’s senior international clinical trainer. “It’s gone from indirect, where you're kind of looking and then sketching and writing, to a digital imprint, a photographic image, where no one is going to argue with what you’re seeing… (and) because this provides such a clear picture, you’re actually picking up a lot more detail from the retina.”

Icon employs a proprietary optical design that incorporates ‘direct illumination’ allowing for superior retinal imaging quality, especially on darkly pigmented fundi, said Dudhia. “Premature babies’ eyes are small, their pupils are small and they're hard to dilate. But because the Icon camera has a very small lens tip, you get really good access and the direct illumination is very good for dark retinas and poor dilation cases.”

According to NeoLight, Icon enables a comprehensive 100⁰, fully illuminated wide field of view and fluorescein angiography (FA), while the handpiece uses low-power LED and sensitive sensor technology, so it can work in low-light levels, making it more comfortable for its sensitive patient group. It’s available in two forms: the Icon Cart, equipped with a height-adjustable trolley and designed for hospital-based neonatal intensive care units, and the Icon Go, a lightweight, portable system designed for more remote screening. The technology and training for both is the same, said Dudhia, so it’s great for nurse-led screening operations. “We have centres around the world which have one of each. The cart is more stationary while the Go is taken out to more remote locations and the images sent back to the ophthalmologist. So they work really well together.”

Embodying a unique blend of portability, cost-effectiveness and uncompromised image quality, the Icon Go sets the gold standard in portable retinal imaging, said Vivek Kopparthi, co-founder and CEO of NeoLight following the device’s FDA approval in August last year. “The addition of FA capabilities is transformative, particularly in the diagnosis and management of retinoblastoma patients.”