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

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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.