) R&D Meetings in Australia | Bausch + Lomb Surgical

R&D Meetings in Australia

Bausch + Lomb recently completed a Research and Development Lecture Tour in Australia.  The events started in Perth and ended in Brisbane, passing through Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.

Brian McCary, Director of Innovation & Design with Bausch + Lomb Surgical, discussed the development of Bausch + Lomb surgical equipment.  With a long history of developing ophthalmic surgical equipment, Bausch + Lomb Surgical has a broad experience in ophthalmic innovation and technology.  These many years of innovation have been aimed at one goal, to develop the best products to improve the lives of our customers: the surgeon and the patient.  As Brian explained, a team of more than 50 developers, engineers, project managers and technology managers, collocated with both manufacturing and commercial, plus outsourced partnerships, work every day to achieve this goal.  During the meetings, Brian took the opportunity to explain the latest surgical equipment technology from Bausch + Lomb, Stellaris Elite™.   He discussed the system components that affect fluidics stability and the newer technology for adaptive fluidics.  Also, Brian discussed recent advances with vitrectomy, such as the new BiBladeTM with dual port vitrectomy cutters and the latest “VitesseTM” handpiece for hypersonic vitrectomy.  The new hypersonic vitrectomy cutter, which differs in many ways from traditional guillotine cutters, has a higher virtual cut-rate, more consistent flow to help reduce turbulence and traction, and can be made in smaller gauges. The finishing touch of the speech was discussing of the company’s initiative in developing connectivity to improve the patient experience, the surgeon’s job, and standardize systems.

Gary Guenthner, R&D Engineering Fellow with Bausch + Lomb Surgical, talked about the process for the design and development of intraocular lenses (IOLs).  This included discussion of design targets for new IOL materials, new optical designs, and new mechanical designs (IOL shape), along with discussion of the development of the associated manufacturing processes and the required verifications and validations.  For the presentation, Gary focussed on the design and development of the enVista IOL, including discussion of the development of the more recent enhanced enVista material with improved unfolding rates.  He described the raw material components of the enVista material and discussed their relationship to the performance properties of the IOL, including the scratch resistance property of the material, the “glistening free” property of the material, and the injectability of the lens.  The presentation included information on the improvement to the unfolding rate for the enhanced enVista IOL.  A review of the enVista optic design included information on how the lens was designed to have a thin optic throughout the power range (for consistent delivery force), a consistent anterior to posterior radii ratio (to minimize changes to the A-constant throughout the power range), and discussion of the benefits of the aberration free optic.  Gary also explained the mechanical design of the enVista IOL, with the stronger haptics (higher  compression force than most hydrophobic one-piece IOLs) and the broad angle of contact with the capsular bag, both of which help to prevent rotation of the IOL once implanted.  Gary also included some discussion on the development of the IOL manufacturing processes and the importance of design verifications and design validations.

We would like to thank you all for sharing this insightful experience with Bausch + Lomb.

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