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Optos Provides optomap® Retinal Exam for Special Olympics Athletes During Opening Eyes® Event
22.02.2008
MARLBOROUGH, MA, February 22, 2008 – Optos, a leading medical technology company for the design, development, manufacturing, and marketing of retinal imaging devices will provide its revolutionary optomap® Retinal Exam for the 2008 Special Olympics Invitational Winter Games event held in Boise, Idaho, February 25-26, 2008. The optomap® Retinal Exam, which non-invasively generates an instantaneous, ultra-widefield digital scan of the retina located at the back of the eye, will be used to perform wellness screenings for approximately 125 athletes as part of the Special Olympics-Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes® program that provides free vision screenings and prescription eyewear for Special Olympics athletes around the world.
"We are pleased to support the Opening Eyes® program by offering the optomap® Retinal Exam to examine its athletes comfortably and quickly,” said Tom Daniells, Vice President, Marketing, Optos North America. “The optomap® Retinal Exam easily takes an image of the retina that the doctor can instantly review with the patient - early detection of retinal abnormalities leads to early and safe treatment and in many cases prevents vision loss.”
Opening Eyes®, a joint effort between the Special Olympics and Lions Clubs International, improves the quality of life for millions of individuals diagnosed with intellectual disabilities by optimizing their vision, eye health and visual skills through quality eye care as part of Healthy Athletes®, a 10-year old program designed to improve training and competition for Special Olympics athletes by providing basic health screenings, educational information and referrals for follow-up care to athletes at Special Olympics events worldwide. Since its inception, nearly 500,000 screenings have been conducted and more than 50,000 health professionals have been engaged in this invaluable health program for individuals with intellectual disabilities in more than 90 countries. Special Olympics is an international organization that changes lives by promoting understanding, acceptance and inclusion between people with and without intellectual disabilities. Optos has been an Opening Eyes® supporter for many years.
Facts about Eye Disease
• Every five seconds one person in the world goes blind. A child goes blind every minute.
• 80% of blindness is avoidable (60% treatable, 20% preventable).
• More than 1.1 million Americans are legally blind. An additional 50,000 people lose their sight each year.
• At the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Shanghai, nearly half (49 percent) of the registered athletes participating in the World Games were screened at Opening Eyes® and of those who went through vision screenings, 20 percent received free prescription eyewear.
Note to Editors
Optos plc is a leading and rapidly growing medical technology company for the design, development, manufacturing and marketing of devices that image the retina, the light-sensitive area at the back of the eye. Optos' platform technology is the Panoramic200 Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope device - known as the P200. In a quarter of a second, the P200 device produces a high resolution image of up to 200 degrees or approximately 82 percent of the retina in a single capture. The image - branded the optomap® Retinal Exam - provides eye care practitioners with clinically useful information that facilitates the early detection of disorders and diseases evidenced in the retina, such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Retinal imaging can also indicate evidence of non-eye or systemic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and certain cancers. The Company has regulatory clearance (CE and FDA 510(k)) to market a second device - P200MA. Optos’ technology provides an unequalled combination of wide-field retinal imaging, speed and convenience for both practitioner and patient and can help save sight and save lives.