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Innovations in Intraocular Pressure and Closed-Loop Drug Delivery Systems

Release Date: 04/15/2022

Biosensors: The Future of Diagnostic Medicine

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. This episode is about how biosensor technology is revolutionizing the field of diagnostic and preventive medicine. Biosensors can take many forms — wearable, implantable, and even ingestible. And they can serve many different functions as well, most notably when it comes to detecting the various pressure levels in our bodies. This episode features interviews with several luminaries working with biosensors. One of them is Doug Adams, a revolutionary entrepreneur who became inspired to create a...

The World in Your Hand: The Power of Generative AI

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

When it comes to emerging technology, there’s no hotter topic than artificial intelligence. Programs like ChatGPT and Midjourney are becoming more popular and are inspiring people to explore the possibilities of what AI can achieve — including when it comes to accessible technology for people who are blind or visually impaired. One of those people is Saqib Shaikh, an engineering manager at Microsoft. Saqib leads the team that developed an app called Seeing AI, which utilizes the latest generation of artificial intelligence, known as generative AI Dr. Cal spoke with Saqib about how...

Reimagining the Visual Arts

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. When it comes to art, a common phrase is “look, don’t touch.” Many think of art as a purely visual medium, and that can make it difficult for people who are blind or visually impaired to engage with it. But in recent years, people have begun to reimagine what it means to experience and express art. For this episode, Dr. Cal spoke to El-Deane Naude from Sony Electronics. El-Deane discussed the Retissa NeoViewer, a project developed with QD Laser that projects images taken on a camera...

Developing Big Ideas: Product Testing and Iteration

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. When we buy a product off the shelf, we rarely think about how much work went into getting it there. Between initial conception and going to market, life-changing technology requires a rigorous testing and development process. That is especially true when it comes to accessible technology for people who are blind or visually impaired. For this episode, Dr. Cal spoke to Jay Cormier, the President and CEO of Eyedaptic, a company that specializes in vision-enhancement technology. Their flagship...

Robotic Guidance Technology

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. The white cane and guide dogs are long-established foundational tools used by people with vision impairment to navigate. Although it would be difficult to replace the 35,000 years of bonding between humans and dogs, researchers are working on robotic technologies that can replicate many of the same functions of a guide dog. One such project, called LYSA, is being developed by Vix Labs in Brazil. LYSA sits on two wheels and is pushed by the user. It’s capable of identifying obstacles and...

Smart Cities and Autonomous Driving: How Technology is Providing Greater Freedom of Movement for People with Vision Loss

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. Navigating the world can be difficult for anyone, whether or not they have vision loss. Tasks like driving safely through a city, navigating a busy airport, or finding the right bus stop all provide unique challenges. Thankfully, advances in technology are giving people more freedom of movement than ever before, allowing them to get where they want, when they want, safely. Smart Cities are putting data collection to work in a healthy way by providing information to make busy intersections more...

Leveling Up Accessible Video Game Features: How New Technology is Making Gaming More Immersive and Inclusive for People with Vision Loss

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. For decades, people with vision loss had limited options when it came to accessing video games. Aside from screen magnification and text-to-voice tools, gamers who are blind or visually impaired didn’t have many ways to play their favorite titles. But in recent years, the same cutting-edge technology used to create games has been used to also make them more accessible for people with vision impairment. These advances include more visibility options, the implementation of 3D audio, haptic...

A Celebration of Sound and Song: Music Tech Shines the Spotlight on Musicians with Vision Loss

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. Marcus Roberts, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, and even Louis Braille (who invented the Braille Music Notation system still used today) prove that musicians who are blind or visually impaired have made profound impacts on our musical landscape. However, to get their work to us, musicians who are blind have had to structure complex workarounds, like relying on sighted musicians to demonstrate complex scores; memorizing long pieces; or only performing when they can have a Braille score in front of...

Ambient Computing and Voice Assistants: From Your Home to the Stars

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. Lots of people have voice-controlled smart home assistants like Siri, Google, or Alexa in their homes…. to listen to the news or to set timers. But they can do so much more! David Frerichs, Principal Engineer, Alexa Experience at Amazon on the aging and accessibility team, shares his design philosophy for making voice assistants more inclusive, and the preferred mode of engagement for every user. He also shares that the next stage of smart home assistants will be ambient computing, where your...

New Approaches in Access: Smart Tools for Indoor Navigation and Information Transfer

On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. Artifacts from Blackbeard’s sunken pirate ship are on display in the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, North Carolina. But now they are also accessible to visitors who are blind, thanks to the efforts of Peter Crumley, who spearheads the Beaufort Blind Project. In this episode, we ask: How can new technology help make sites like these as accessible to people who are blind as they are to sighted people? We profile three companies applying new technologies paired with smartphone...

More Episodes

This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss.

In 2012, Christine Ha won the third season of Masterchef, after having lost her vision in her twenties. Since her win, she has opened two restaurants in Houston, adapting to the challenges the pandemic still poses to restaurateurs in order to meet the needs of her community. In a similarly innovative way, Max Ostermeier, CEO and Founder of Implandata Ophthalmic Products out of Hannover Germany, has reimagined the remote management and care of patients with glaucoma. Max and his team developed the EyeMate system, a microscopic implantable device and microsensor that measures intraocular pressure throughout the day. The EyeMate sends eye pressure data to an external device and uploads it to their eye doctor's office for analysis. This game-changing technology allows people with glaucoma to bypass regular trips to the ophthalmologist’s office to measure their eye pressure, key data in maintaining their eye health. We revisit a conversation with Sherrill Jones, who lost her sight due to glaucoma, in which she shares how difficult it was to adhere to compliance protocols. Max believes the EyeMate will evolve to be part of a closed loop drug delivery system; that is, when the EyeMate registers a high pressure, medications could automatically be released into the patient’s eye, which could improve outcomes significantly. We dig into issues of compliance and closed-loop systems by considering diabetes. We talk to occupational therapist Christina Senechal who has managed her diabetes for 27 years, and Dr. Carmen Pal, who specializes in internal medicine, endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism in Lighthouse Guild’s Maxine and John M. Bendheim Center for Diabetes Care.

The Big Takeaways:

Innovation and adaptability have been key as Christine Ha, who won Masterchef in 2012 despite being blind, keeps the doors open on two Houston restaurants during the pandemic. In order to find opportunities through the pandemic, Christine has had to discover new needs that have to be met.
The pandemic has made it harder for patients with glaucoma, many of whom are older, to get to the eye doctor.
Dr. Max Ostermeier and his team have invented a microscopic implantable device, the EyeMate, that measures intraocular pressure throughout the day and then sends the data to a patient’s handheld device and their eye doctor's office for analysis, saving patients a trip.
Since it can take many readings throughout the day, this system is better than relying on a doctor’s visit. The abundance of data can help patients use their medication more reliably, but can also be optimized in the future by algorithms.
In the future, Max envisions that the EyeMate could be paired with a drug delivery implant to close the loop between monitoring and drug delivery, as with diabetes. This would make it easier for patients to stay in compliance with glaucoma protocols.
We speak with Sherrill Jones, a patient with glaucoma, on why compliance for glaucoma was a challenge for her.
We hear from Christina Senechal about her journey with diabetes and how hard compliance can be and how new technologies can help, and from Dr. Carmen Pal about how closed-loop drug delivery systems that pair glucose monitoring with insulin delivery help patients stay in compliance.

Tweetables:

There is opportunity and you just have to kind of think outside of the box and figure out what new ways … to think or do things, and what new needs are that need to be met. And that's how you survive. — Christine Ha, chef and restaurateur, Xin Chao and The Blind Goat, Houston
“Glaucoma patients … are among the most vulnerable. … They have been asked to stay out of the doctor’s office. … But … they have an eye disease, which, if the pressure is too high, can damage the optic nerve. —Max Ostermeier, CEO and Founder of Implandata Ophthalmic Products
Right now, ... a patient sees his eye doctor, maybe every few weeks or every few months and in between the office visits, the doctor has no understanding at all, what's going on with the patient. —Max Ostermeier, CEO and Founder of Implandata Ophthalmic Products
I knew I had glaucoma, but the rapidness of it attacked me really fast. … and … I didn't faithfully use the drops in the beginning because I thought other remedies could help.—Sherrill Jones, patient with glaucoma
I'm pretty sure in 10 years from now, we will see something like that, you know. A device, which … is releasing active ingredients … every time the pressure’s too high. —Max Ostermeier, CEO and Founder of Implandata Ophthalmic Products
I'm a mom, … and … it’s … 10 o'clock. … I'm exhausted. I've had a full day … and my insulin pump starts beeping. … I just wanna go to bed! I'm so tired, but … I don't have that luxury of saying no. — Christina Senechal, occupational therapist and patient with diabetes
It is quite beneficial … that … the patient does not … have to … fill the role of the pancreas, which is a little bit of an … unfair … task to ask of them. — Dr. Carmen Pal, diabetes specialist in Lighthouse Guild’s Maxine and John M. Bendheim Center for Diabetes Care.

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