Is your hospital following up with this? I bet it could be useful in TBI and stroke to actually make an objective diagnosis rather than waiting hours for your symptoms to get much worse before they finally figure out you had a stroke.
http://medcitynews.com/2014/07/oculogicas-eye-tracking-machine-tell-youve-concussion/?
Manhattan-based neurodiagnostics company Oculogica is
developing eye-tracking technology to help with early diagnosis
of concussions and other forms of traumatic brain injury. The company’s
still working on a prototype device as it conducts early studies, but
feels that it’ll eventually be able to provide a point-of-care solution
for the recently concussed.
Concussions are a hot-button topic
these days, given the growing awareness of how sports-related injuries
can have some pretty deleterious effects down the road. But the
incidence spreads of course past sports-related injury; millions of
people the world over suffer from these mind-addling blows.
Though still being conceptualized, Version 1.0 of Oculogica’s device
will be a mobile cart meant for emergency department use that has a
computer monitor and a chin rest, and a camera that will track pupil
movement. Ultimately the technology could be applied even to a
smartphone or other mobile device with a camera, since the algorithm
simply captures eye movement patterns, said Adrian Trevisan, the
self-described “commercial guy” of the three-person startup.
The company is largely self-funded at present, as it explores Food
and Drug Administration clearance options and “the whole reimbursement
situation,” Trevisan said. Oculogica plans to approach the investor
community once it nails down some tangible data that the algorithms
work.
“So far, we’ve done a friends and family round, and we think that
with that and grants we’ll be good to go until we need to start spending
seriously on developing manufacturing for the device,” Trevisan said.
Oculogica has an eye tracking algorithm that can measure a person’s
eye movements while they watch TV. Based on research by founder Uzma Samadani,
a neurosurgeon at New York University, the company’s tech detects
whether there is weakness in the specific cranial nerves that move the
eye. Its preliminary data has found that uninjured subjects have what’s
called a highly conjugated gaze — the eyes move in tight unison. By
contrast, a concussed subject’s eyes are disconjugate, and the severity
of the misalignment can be measured by the algorithm.
Right now, the diagnostic criteria for concussions is pretty primitive, Trevisan said. It’s full of subjective criteria such
as vision, hearing and coordination testing, but it’s still pretty
tough to accurately pinpoint mild to moderate concussions — leaving a
whole bunch undiagnosed. This can, unfortunately, lead to a number of complications later on down the road — making the market pretty ripe for a more accurate diagnostic tool.
The company’s technology could also potentially measure for other
brain conditions like hydrocephalus, heightened cranial pressure and
dementia. The non-invasive test can be performed in just a few minutes.
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