Grant: Project Grant

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in the world. Over 400 thousand Canadians and 70 million people worldwide suffer from glaucoma, with many times more at high risk of developing glaucoma. Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is the primary risk factor for glaucoma and reducing IOP is the only evidence-based treatment for preventing the development of glaucoma or reducing the rate of its progression. Mean IOP over the 24-hour cycle is closely related to the risk of progression in glaucoma and ultimately loss of vision. Unfortunately, standard medical office hours can offer patients IOP measurements only during a small fraction of the daily cycle. Because IOP varies by up to 8 mmHg over 24-hour period, significant IOP measurement error can be incurred by attempts to extrapolate from single time point measures. Further, IOP varies significantly over longer periods of days and weeks. Millions of these people cannot get IOP measurements often enough for optimal vision care, and consequently eventually lose vision. This project will optimize our non-invasive IOP measurement technology through collaboration with industrial and medical partners to develop an effective and highly-accessible personal IOP monitoring device that provides frequent IOP measurements for people with glaucoma and those at risk of developing the disease. The device will use a contact lens-based pressure sensor together with mobile devices (cell phones or tablets) as the information processing platform to monitor IOP non-invasively. Success of the project will provide a novel clinical ability to enable earlier detection of dangerous IOP levels. This will improve health for the many Canadians with glaucoma and for those who will develop glaucoma in their lifetimes, and may also reduce the significant social and economic costs associated with vision loss.