Madhu Eye Instruments, a medical products practice run by renowned doctor-inventor Dr. S. C. Gupta, is a small scale enterprise that provides low cost, robust, eye health instruments for developing economies. On the back of Dr. Gupta’s experience and passion for the practice, the manufacturing unit is also run as a small set-up, improvising on materials and components so as to optimize costs without compromising the functionality of the products. Dr. Gupta approached Quicksand to partner him in the development of some product ideas that he had envisioned and partially tested with lo-tech prototypes in the field. Encouraged by their possibilities, Quicksand was called in to do user research in order to ascertain the human factor requirements from the product, design an appropriate outer form that housed the components and complimented the product context, and build production ready prototypes. The two products that this effort yielded are 1. The Tonometer and 2. The Retinal Camera.

We were also called in to help visualise a patent owned by Dr. Patnaik, another renowned eye surgeon and collaborating closely with Dr.S.C.Gupta. The patent would aid a more efficient & reliable retinal detachment surgery.

1. Tonometer

An early determinant of the onset of blindness is an increase in ocular pressure. Tonometers are medical instruments used to ascertain the ocular pressure. Traditionally these devices have been bulky and as a result largely immobile. And therefore patients have to come to the clinics where these equipments are typically located. Dr.Gupta saw the opportunity in making a portable device that would be able to screen out patients whose ocular pressure is reaching a threshold value. Portability would allow for doctors to do this screening in remote locations and borderline cases could then be referred to city clinics.

2. Retinal Detachment

Retinal Detachment occurs due to the contraction of vitreous, a fluid that fills the void inside the eye. As a result the retina gets pulled off the inside surface of the eye and develops minute tears in its surface. Leakage of vitreous through these micro-tears can cause a permanent loss of vision. Scenario 1 below demonstrates how the problem develops.To neutralise the force that results from contraction of the vitreous, the eye is compressed along the equator with the help of a silicon band.

To absorb the resultant slack in the retina and block the tears, small silicon rods are placed along points of tearing and a silicon tape is tightened around them from the outside. This method is more archaic and requires extreme precision by the surgeon.

A common alternative used is to place sections of cut silicon tape along the equator of the eye. However, the likelihood of the tears re-appearing after some time remains.

The patent developed by Dr.Patnaik consisted of a ribbed silicon tape. The ribs served the same purpose as the rods in scenario 2 but reduced the dependence on the precision with which a surgeon was earlier required to perform the surgery. The patent therefore would enable a larger number of eye surgeries to be performed by relatively less experienced surgeons as well.