The Origin

While pursing his postdoctoral research at the Center of Medical Physics; Biomedical Engineering (CMPBE) at Medical University of Vienna (MUW), founder Abhishek Kumar invented a novel digital algorithm to calculate wavefront error from OCT images. This method obviates the need for any additional expensive adaptive optics hardware and opens the door the using a single economical OCT device to perform not only imaging of the eye but also Wavefront Aberrometry, thus providing ophthalmic disease diagnosis. Realizing its immense potential, he obtained the IP rights from MUW to pursue its commercialisation in the year 2017.

Wavesense Engineering GmBH was eventually founded in Vienna in early 2018. The concept and the design of multimodal OCT device, termed as Digital OCT-Aberrometry or DOCTA, was further developed with the primary target of improving outcomes of the cataract and refractive surgery. IPs related to DOCTA is patented by Wavesense Engineering and it is currently developing the first commercial prototype with continued collaboration with CMPBE at MUW and other leading industrial partners in the field of optics, lasers and ophthalmology.

Our Focus

Our main focus is to develop a multimodal DOCTA device that can provide complete optical and anatomical information of patient eye, which can improve the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases. DOCTA device developed using Wavesense Engineering proprietary technology will for the first time provide:

  1.  3-1 functionalities, i.e., 1) Anterior Segment Imaging, 2) Posterior Segment Imaging and 3) Wavefront Aberrometry.
  2. Unique sample arm design to archive the ergonomics and flexibility, such that it can used in two different configurations: 1) as a surgical microscope mounted-operative device and 2) as a tabletop diagnostic device.

Wavesense Engineering, using multimodality of the single DOCTA device, aims to significantly reduce hardware footprint, manufacturing cost and measurement time or extra clinic/hospital visits without compromising on the precision and accuracy of diagnosis. This will immensely benefit both -the health/vision care providers by reducing their cost and maximising their patient flow; and-patients by improving their quality or life with better care, improved diagnosis and surgical outcomes.

The Problem Worth Solving

Significantly improving the outcome of cataract surgery is one of the main focus areas of Wavesense Engineering. Cataract, which causes clouding of lens, is the number one cause of blindness in the world with about 100 million people suffering worldwide. About 40 % or the patients undergoing lens replacement surgery are unsatisfied and have to rely on glasses or undergo further vision correction surgery. This is because currently surgeon “plans” the surgery (e.g. type and power of intra-ocular lens (IOL) and its positioning in the eye), based on pre-operative measurements from several different biometric devices, which are often imprecise, to achieve the best outcome statistically. Furthermore, the surgeon cannot measure his/her performance or outcome during the surgery and must wait until after the surgery to know the results when the patient’s visual performance can be measured.

Our Novel Solution

Wavesense Engineering’s novel DOCTA device can enable surgeons to formulate a personalized treatment plan (e.g. the right design, power and axis orientation of IOL) for each patient as complete optical and anatomical properties of individuals, eye is known, which can significantly improve the refractive outcome after surgery and help patient achieve perfect 20/20 vision. Also, DOCTA device can be used intraoperatively to guide the surgery by measuring outcome at different stages and apapting accordingly to archive the precise targeted surgical outcome. Hence, the “guesswork” (reliance on surgeon’s judgement and experience) currently involved in the state-of-art cataract surgical procedure can be eliminated, potentially making it more standardized. 

DOCTA device can be used to guide other ocular surgeries as well to improve the precision, such as keratoplasty, epi-retinal membrane peeling, retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage etc. Also, as a tabletop diagnostic device, it can help in precise treatment planning of wavefront guided LASIK surgery for vision correction, and also improved diagnosis of several eye disease such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy (DR) etc.