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GB。飞秒激光白内障手术(FLCS)于2010年推出，被认为是最重要的技术进步，使手术能够自动化，减少对熟练外科医生的需求，并能够在不需要眼镜或隐形眼镜的情况下实现完美视力。飞秒激光白内障手术目前依赖于昂贵、笨重和不可靠的飞秒激光系统，价格从GB 300K到GB 370K不等。FEMTOPLANE-DOP建立在菲尼扬斯和南安普顿大学之间非常成功的Innovate-UK合作研发项目的基础上，在该项目中，项目团队证明了创新的飞秒激光体系结构的概念，展示了低于FLCS所需的规格，但具有超紧凑、坚固、空气冷却和低建造和拥有成本的潜力。我们将建造一个完全集成的飞秒激光器原型，并使其符合飞秒激光器的规格要求，与现有最先进的飞秒激光器相比，飞秒激光器的价格将降低85%(批量目标为GB 30K)，尺寸缩小80%。创新的激光系统将具有极强的颠覆性，导致飞秒激光器在世界各地广泛普及，并使最贫穷国家的患者能够从最高质量的程序中受益。原型的成功交付将是实现商业化的第一步，目标是在项目完成后3-4年内将合格的激光光源投入生产，到2020年实现20倍的投资回报。

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.