FEMTOPLANE-DoP "FEMTOsecond fibre oscillator PLANar waveguide amplifiEr laser system to enable globally affordable cataract surgery - Development of Prototype"

白内障手术是最常见的外科手术之一，全世界每年进行近2400万例手术。在人口老龄化的推动下，每年的市场正在增长，预计到2019年将超过16亿英镑。飞秒激光白内障手术（FLCS）于2010年推出，被认为是技术上最重要的进步，使手术实现自动化，减少了对熟练外科医生的需求，无需眼镜或隐形眼镜即可实现完美视力。FLCS目前依赖于昂贵、笨重和不可靠的飞秒激光系统，价格标签从30万英镑到37万英镑不等。FLCS程序不受国家或私人保健服务机构的支持，因此只向最富有的患者提供。FEMTOPLANE-DoP建立在Fianium和南安普顿大学之间一个非常成功的Innovate-UK合作研发项目的基础上，该项目团队证明了创新飞秒激光架构的概念，其规格远远超过了FLCS的要求，但具有超紧凑、坚固、风冷、低成本和拥有成本的潜力。在FEMTOPLANE-DoP中，将建造一个完全集成的飞秒激光器原型，并符合FLCS规范要求，与现有的最先进的flclaser相比，价格将降低85%（体积目标为3万英镑），尺寸减少80%。创新的激光系统将具有高度的破坏性，导致lcs在世界范围内的广泛渗透，并使最贫穷国家的患者受益于最高质量的手术。原型机的成功交付将是商业化的第一步，在项目完成后的3-4年内，医学合格的激光源将投入生产，到2020年，投资回报率将达到20x。

Cataract surgery is one of the most common surgical procedures, with nearly 24 millionprocedures performed worldwide each year. Driven by an ageing population, the annualmarket is growing and is forecast to exceed £1.6 Billion by 2019.Introduced in 2010, Femtosecond laser cataract surgery (FLCS) is regarded to be the mostimportant advancement in technology, enabling procedures to be automated, reducing theneed for skilled surgeons and enabling perfect vision without the need for spectacles orcontact lenses.FLCS is currently dependent on expensive, bulky and unreliable femtosecond laser systemswith price tags ranging from £300K to £370K. FLCS procedures are not supported bynational or private health services and have therefore only been available to the most-wealthypatients.FEMTOPLANE-DoP builds on a highly successful Innovate-UK collaborative R&D projectbetween Fianium and the University of Southampton where the project team proved theconcept of an innovative femtosecond laser architecture, demonstrating specifications farexceeding those required for FLCS yet with potential to be ultra-compact, robust, air-cooledand have low cost of build and ownership.Within FEMTOPLANE-DoP, a fully integrated prototype femtosecond laser will be built andqualified to FLCS specification requirements and will demonstrate up to 85% reduction inprice (volume target £30K) and 80% reduction in size compared to existing state-of-art FLCSlasers.The innovative laser system will be highly disruptive, leading to widespread penetration ofFLCS throughout the world and enabling patients in the poorest countries to benefit from thehighest-quality procedures.Successful delivery of the prototype will be the first commercialisation step towards having amedically qualified laser source in production within 3-4 years of project completion and a20X return on investment by 2020.