WASHINGTON - Optica (formerly OSA), Advancing Optics and Photonics Worldwide, is pleased to announce that Leica Microsystems's EnFocus Intraoperative Optical Coherence Tomography Development Team, has received the 2022 Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award. The team is recognized, "for developing an optically brilliant, latency-free intrasurgical optical coherence tomography microscope that fully integrates into the ophthalmic surgical workflow, allowing a surgeon to see more and do more to preserve patient sight."
The 2022 award will be presented during Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (FiO LS). A list of the team members is available below.
"Optica is proud to honor this diverse team for their impactful work to improve the outcomes of ophthalmic surgeries by providing surgeons with real-time information and a complete picture of subsurface details," said Optica President, Satoshi Kawata.
The Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award was established in 1989 and named in remembrance of Paul F. Forman, who helped raise visibility for the optical engineering field in 2007. The award recognizes technical achievements such as product engineering, process, software and patent development, as well as contributions to society such as engineering education, publication and management, and public appreciation of optical engineering.
Since the beginning of their development work, the team focused on providing surgeons with high-quality Optical Coherence Tomography images that enable intra-surgical decisions that improve patient outcomes. A diverse, cross-functional, and collaborative team that put surgeons at the center of the innovation process is essential to realizing this goal.
Realizing EnFocus' goal was an iterative process of observation, innovation, and feedback that has driven development. New spectrometers designed to acquire the spectral bandwidth and resolution needed to meet the axial depth, axial resolution, and signal falloff required to see the interstitial detail in the eye while meeting the size and cost constraints of the commercial needs. Workflow needs of wanting to see the manipulation of tissue with surgical tools led to the design of real-time processing algorithm. This algorithm was optimized to provide a capability to show the viewed image without latency. Observing operating room activity led to understanding the need to make image acquisition as simple as looking into microscope binoculars. The functionality gave the team processing and control innovations for automatic targeting, tracking and optimization routines.
Those technical features have enabled surgeons to achieve impactful clinical results across the range of ophthalmic surgeries. Surgeons intra-operatively visualize the delivery of novel genomic therapies, confirming that the targeted retina cells are receiving the dosage needed to help restore sight. Surgeons confirm dimensional matches of donor-recipient tissue and can visualize proper adhesion in corneal transplant surgeries to decrease rejection rates. They can also visualize the process of retina peeling and placement of tissue transplant to confirm closure of retinal holes to help improve patient vision.
Through the development of EnFocus, the team achieved its mission of helping realize life's potential. They are providing surgeons with a tool that fits their workflow and aids them in visualizing what the microscope alone cannot see. These results are a testament to the efforts of the development team, which has included optical, mechanical, electrical, software, applications, systems, and biomedical engineers, and surgical collaborators from across the globe in U.S., Italy, France, Germany, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and beyond.
Team Members
Robert Hart
Mark Bowers
Mehran (Ron) Ghofrani
Daniel Albertson
Eric Lynch
Bing Ren
Dorothy Branco
Hansford Hendargo, PhD
Allison Hartman, PhD
Jacob Smith
Terry Hunsinger
Elizabeth Hummel
Genine Grant
Christopher Saxer, PhD
Hafeez Dhalla
