Eye doctor's invention headed for space station
A rural Wisconsin eye doctor and part-time inventor will get the ultimate product launch.
A hand-held digital camera that peers into the retina and optic nerve will be aboard the space shuttle Discovery, to be dropped off on the international space station as an onboard medical tool. The shuttle launch was scrubbed Tuesday, and it's not clear when it will be rescheduled.
"I always thought it would be useful for long-distance work" but never expected it to go to outer space, optometrist Paul Filar said in a phone conversation from Washington Island in northern Wisconsin, where one of his practices is based.
The $2,695 tool is simple. It amounts to a modified digital camera in an ergonomic plastic case, which attaches to the magnifying instruments that optometrists commonly use to look into the retina.
Filer said he's accustomed to patients who squirm and blink, making it difficult to study the back of the eyeball. He wanted a portable piece of equipment that made it easy to document, enlarge and study images without inconveniencing patients. "If I'm in a nursing home, and the patient is hunched in a wheelchair, I can take the photo and look at it later," Filar said.
In an era of telemedicine, he saw even wider applications, including for missionaries in impoverished nations. Laymen and even astronauts can photograph or videotape the retina and send the images to specialists who can interpret them. The most common ailments diagnosed in the back of the eye include macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness in older people, as well as high blood pressure, diabetes and glaucoma.
Filar splits his practice between Sturgeon Bay and Washington Island, two Door County retreats. But the genesis of the retinal camera wasn't slow-paced.
The doctor filed a patent application for the device in February. He and his distributor displayed it at a Wisconsin medical conference in April. On Aug. 6, Filar received an unexpected call from NASA, which placed a priority order for two. NASA checked the weight to ensure they would be compatible with NASA's in-flight computers, said Keith Favaro of Burlington, whose 20/20 Medical Services Inc. equipment distribution company markets Filar's camera.
Ten days later, NASA ordered four more, he said.
"The device is scheduled to be left on the international space station as a medical tool to allow the flight surgeons and research community insight into potential changes in the eye that may come about as a result of long-duration missions," said NASA spokesman Bill Jeffs.
"This all happened very quickly," Favaro said.
