New digital treatment to combat ‘lazy eye’ condition approved by FDA

Amblyopia, also known as having a lazy eye, is a form of impeded vision that commonly occurs in one eye, and occasionally both. The condition is derived from a lack of understanding between the human eye and brain, leading to a lack of sight. Amblyopia can affect between two and three percent of children. At present, for up to six hours daily, children with amblyopia cover their stronger eye with a patch. This is utilized as their weaker eye is stimulated when the other is covered which improves their overall vision. Despite the positive outcome of the child’s improved vision within weeks or months, treatment may be required for up to two years.
NovaSight have developed an alternative remedy for the condition. The device named ‘CureSight’ is an eye-tracking-based system that trains users with a lazy eye condition to use both eyes at once. Using the new service, the patient watches their preferred streamed video content as they also wear red-blue treatment glasses provided. Throughout this process, eye-tracking equipment and algorithms relay information about the fading of the image’s central focus. Real-time image processing is used to blur the image to entice the brain to fill in the missing features from the weaker eye.
A sixteen-week clinical research study was carried out to measure the effectiveness of Curesight. The results were extremely encouraging, with approximately eighty percent of individuals who received CureSight saw at least a two-line improvement in their weak eye on the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) test, the industry-standard method of evaluating vision. The study reached a primary noninferiority endpoint due to an excess of 60% of patients having a BCVA improvement of two lines or more. In the final week of the study, it was found that the relative adherence to the at-home CureSight treatment was 93%. Additionally, 95% of the patients involved, indicated that they would indoubtably choose NovaSight’s new product over the method of patching.
In October 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared CureSight for utilization. NovaSight also offers EyeSwift, a portable vision diagnostic tool that quickly and precisely screens for various visual impairments.