I recently went to the eye doctor for a check-up and was surprised to receive an Optomap Retinal Exam. First of all because I no longer had to go through the dreaded dilation drops, but second of all because I found out that at a whopping $90,000, it was the most expensive machine at the office! Shocked, I wondered why this machine could possibly cost so much.
It turns out the machine displays a 200o view of one’s retina, compared to the standard 45o view, and this is a huge difference in being able to identify diseases that can easily go undetected. There are several abnormalities that often present first in the retina that could go on to indicate the onset of many diseases. For example, cancerous melanomas can grow within the retina, damaged blood vessels in the retina can point to diabetes, etc. There was even a recent news story where an Optomap Retinal Exam saved a girl’s life after she was found to have hydrocephalus (that’s fluid buildup in the brain for those of us not in the medical field).
To me, the Optomap is representative of what innovation should be. Doing something not only better, but also going above and beyond. Who would have thought that going to the eye doctor could help identify non-eye related diseases?