Vision impairment is an issue that many people don’t understand. Most people view vision loss as absolute, either you can see or you cannot. However, there are other conditions where a person has slightly less vision and also severe visual impairment. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2.2 billion people in the world have near or distance impairment and according to their statistics, 1 billion of these cases could have been addressed. Taking a step towards this same cause, a new technology has been created, which could help people who have slowly lost their sight to read again. A new study has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, announcing a huge step forward for people with Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). This is a common disease that causes people to lose their central vision over time. The groundbreaking result of the study was that dozens of patients who took part in the study were able to get some of their sight back. This was achieved by using a brand-new system that combines an eye implant with special smart glasses.Also Read: Can You Get Your Covid And Flu Shots At The Same Time? Experts Explain This technology was powerful enough to help these patients return to doing simple, everyday things they could no longer do, like reading books or solving crossword puzzles. The people who participated in this trial were all 60 years or older, had AMD in both eyes, and had very poor vision in the eye being studied. How Can You Help Someone With Progressive Vision Loss? To understand why this is a big deal, you need to know that AMD causes the cells in the center of the retina (the light-sensitive part at the back of the eye) to die. Once they die, vision loss is considered permanent. This new study doesn't cure AMD, but it focuses on replacing the job of those dead cells to bring some vision back. The system has two main parts: The Implant This is a tiny device, only about 2x2 millimeters in size, which is smaller than a small pea. It’s made of little photovoltaic solar panels. It is carefully surgically placed underneath the patient's retina. The Smart Glasses The patient wears these special glasses, which have a camera. The glasses capture a close-up, zoomed-in image of the world and send this image to the implant using near-infrared light. Once the implant receives the light signal, it creates small electrical pulses. These pulses travel to the optic nerve, completely taking over the job of the dead retinal cells and allowing the brain to finally see the world again. How Does This Technology Work? The clinical trial started with 38 patients who got the implant. After one full year, 32 patients were still involved in the study. The results at the one-year mark were extremely encouraging: 26 out of the 32 participants, which is an 80 percent success rate, could see better than they did when they started the trial.It’s important to note that the vision they regained isn't perfect; patients can only see a blurry image and everything is in black and white. However, outside experts have praised the achievement, with some calling the work "amazing," because it provides hope where there was previously none. The technology was developed by a company called Science Corporation, which works on brain-computer interfaces. The CEO and founder of Science Corporation is Max Hodak, who also helped start the well-known neurotechnology company Neuralink with Elon Musk back in 2016. Science Corporation took over this vision project in 2024. They acquired the retinal implant technology from a French company named Pixium Vision. Pixium Vision had spent ten years trying to develop the technology but eventually ran out of money. This kind of "rescue" is actually not unique in the medical world; a similar situation happened with another company, Second Sight Medical, whose abandoned vision technology was also saved by a different startup to keep its clinical trials going.
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