History of Optos
Optos was founded and incorporated in 1992 by Douglas Anderson after his then five-year-old son went blind in one eye when a retinal detachment was detected too late. Although his son was having regular eye exams, routine exams were uncomfortable, especially for a child, which made it impossible for the doctor to conduct a complete exam and view the entire retina. Anderson set out to commercialize a patient-friendly retinal image product that encompassed a digital wide-field image of the retina in a single capture.
Clinical trials began in 1998. In 1999 the Panoramic200 Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope received both FDA 510k clearance to market in the United States and the European Economic Area CE marking. Full commercial launch occured in 2000 in the United States and the United Kingdom, in Canada in 2003 and in Germany in 2004. Optos' shares were admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange and unconditional trading commenced on 15 February 2006. Prior to becoming a public company Optos was privately held, supported by a core group of long-term, primarily Scottish-based, investors. Optos is headquartered in Dunfermline, Scotland and presently has operations in the United States, Canada, the UK and Germany.