Optical engineer takes inventor title

Published on Wednesday 7 May 2008 10:23

AN optical engineer has won the European Inventor of the Year title for taking the pain and discomfort out of medical eye examinations.

Edinburgh man Robert Henderson, along with fellow Scots Douglas Anderson and Roger Lucas, were named at an awards ceremony in Slovenia for work which made a significant difference to ordinary lives.

The trio invented laser-scanning technology which allows powerful but totally pain-free examination of the retina. Mr Anderson, an industrial designer from Clackmannanshire, set to work after his five-year-old son Leif went blind in one eye because traditional eye scans meant a detached retina was detected too late.

Doctors told him how difficult it was to give small children in particular a complicated and unpleasant eye check-up.

Europe's Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen, who has suffered from bad eyesight for years, described the invention as "wonderful".

Presenting the awards last night, he said: "I have to do eye-checks twice a year and it is extremely painful – so this is the invention I like the most."

The invention, dubbed "Optomap" also does away with the need for dilation drops in the eye – and removes the distress endured by young children undergoing the original, less effective, and lengthier examination.