A group of Spanish researchers and vision specialists have developed, together with the technology company Proconsi, OPTIcTRAIN, an innovative visual training technology based on gamification, which improves the quantity and quality of vision in cataract surgery patients They have been implanted with a multifocal intraocular lens.
OPTIcTRAIN technology favors neuroadaptation, preventing the potential intolerance of newly implanted patients with multifocal intraocular lens. This advance has a special significance considering that In Spain, 350,000 cataract interventions are performed per yearreaching 3.6 million in the United States and 20 million worldwide.
OPTIcTRAIN makes it possible to prevent visual disturbances in patients newly implanted with a multifocal intraocular lens
Cataract intervention is a routine and rapid surgical intervention that can effectively restore this visual impairment. However, in some cases visual disturbances appear such as glare, loss of ability to see contrasts or perception of halos, mainly after the multifocal intraocular lens implant, which can make activities such as night driving difficult, and which in many cases are reduced or disappear in the postoperative period thanks to neuroadaptation. The problem resides in those cases in which the Visual discomfort persists and hinders the patient’s day-to-day.
It is estimated that between 6 and 7% of patients do not tolerate the visual discomfort associated with the lens implant multifocal intraocular eye, since it maintains a pattern of effort for the processing of the received visual information, which can condition the functional activity of certain brain areas, which implies that persistent visual disturbances appear.
In this sense, the OPTIcTRAIN technology it can facilitate visual rehabilitation at all distances, avoiding intolerance to multifocality and minimizing potential vision quality problems, which in the most severe cases can lead to explantation of multifocal lenses, with the costs associated with the intervention and the risk of a second intraocular surgery.
OPTIcTRAIN acts by developing the necessary stimuli to facilitate neuroadaptation after surgery with multifocal lens implant. The software is based on a gamified, entertaining and attractive system for patients, which uses Gabor sinusoidal networks, a system eye tracker -eye tracking-, and a series of stimuli that motivate attention and other skills.
This technology has been developed by the Spanish company specialized in technological solutions and in its development it contemplated different phases: the design of the necessary stimuli, design and installation of an Eye Tracker system, development of the software system, optimization of the system and its validation.
has been configured as a product ‘key on hand’ which operates with an annual license system, which includes a user package adapted to each need and which includes:
- hardware and software on Tablet or PC and Eye Tracker
- a management Cloud System with user interface
- an online and telephone assistance service
The team that has developed OPTICTRAIN is formed by the Dr. David Pinerospecialist in Optics and Optometry from the University of Alicante, the ophthalmologist Miguel Maldonadofrom the University of Valladolid, and a PhD in Vision Sciences begona coconutspecialist in visual rehabilitation from the University of Valladolid.
As stated by Dr. David Piñero, it is about «a innovative visual training system that combines advances in visual perception, psychophysics and neurology that allows accelerate and promote the neuroadaptation process in patients operated on for cataract with a multifocal intraocular lens implant, minimizing potential adverse visual effects and facilitating the efficiency of visual rehabilitation that this type of implant can provide«,
It is currently being used successfully by the ophthalmology departments of some of the clinics in Spain, among which is the Vithas group.