Client: Michael Ward, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology & Opthamology, UCSF School of Medicine
Team: Jon Silberstein, Connor Ludwig, Deepika Bhatnagar, Sahithi Rani
Purpose:
The retina is vital to the diagnosis of optical conditions; however, and perhaps more interestingly, the retina has the proven ability to indicate other physiological conditions. For example, swelling of the optic nerve head has been associated with optic neuritis, malignant hypertension, papilloedema, and glaucoma. Papilloedema, specifically, is often present in cases of head trauma. The potential to detect or monitor papilloedema through retinal health would be a great asset to the clinical field. However, Optical Coherence Tomography machines, the current gold standard for retinal imaging, are prohibitively expensive. In order to determine the efficacy of using retinal imaging to detect or monitor papilloedema in clinical environments such as a physician’s office or emergency room, an alternative imaging solution is needed. This project seeks to develop a device that enables 3D retinal imaging in non-optometry clinical settings.