Optical Prism November 2016 | Page 32

Barbara Barclay, president of RightEye LLP. It was developed by a team of experts that includes: Dr. Mark Baron, a neurology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the interim director of the school's Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders Centre; Paul Wetzel, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the VCU School of Engineering; and Dr. George Gitchel, associate director of research at the Southeast/Richmond Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education and Clinical Centre. In September, VCU announced that The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research awarded a $1 million grant to its Schools of Medicine and Engineering to further evaluate the new diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s disease. “The test, which offers more accuracy than traditional diagnostic methods, takes only five minutes and has a dramatically lower cost than the extensive, costly PET, DAT and MRI scans frequently ordered for diagnosis,” RightEye says. RightEye’s platform, which was launched earlier this year, already offers eye-tracking-based tests that can address a range of health issues such as concussions, vision disorders and reading issues. They can also be used to assess the vision strengths and areas for improvement in athletes. RightEye tests take only minutes to complete and results and recommendations are available instantly thanks to its cloud-based platform, Barclay said. So far, the company's software is being used by emergency rooms, neurologists, physical therapists and in other health care settings. Barclay said it takes about an hour to set up the hardware, which includes a remote eye tracker and computer system and is available for purchase through RightEye. Companies pay an annual software fee to RightEye to use the tests. Visit www.righteye.com for more information. 32 Optical Prism | November 2016