• H2020
• Excellent Science

A new €4.9m Horizon 2020 research project, led by the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, aims to reduce the size of core optical coherence tomology (OCT) technology.

While OCT use for ophthalmic diagnosis has increased, and is likewise growing in cardiovascular imaging, the technique still relies on expensive and bulky laser, optical and electronic equipment. Advances in silicon photonics, however, are set for biophotonics applications in the Austrian-led project that aims to make the OCT system cost effective, as well as small. No bigger than a coin, the OCTCHIP project aims to simplify and accelerate the diagnosis process regarding eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.

Professor Wolfgang Drexler of the Medical University of Vienna said: “State-of-the-art OCT technology has its limitations: it is bulky – the size of a desktop – and quite expensive, costing anything in the region of €100,000 per unit. It can detect abnormalities but, at the present moment, compact, cost effective versions that can be used outside of hospitals and in private practice in a hand-held mode do not exist.”

Diabetic retinopathy is thought to be the cause of 200 million cases of blindness worldwide, including 60 million people in Europe. Drexler argues that the case for a low cost, point-of-care diagnostic platform is clear. “OCTCHIP,” he says, “will reduce costs and is maintenance-free … [It] fosters widespread use to visualise and quantify the retina in more definition, so we can diagnose diseases better, quicker and cheaper.”

Drexler suggests that the combination of silicon photonics and the III-V laser source in the coin-sized system could lead to mainstream commercialisation of the diminuitive OCT products for domestic diagnoses.