FIVE STUDENTS from Trinity College Dublin flew to Egypt yesterday to compete in an international technology competition with a medical training device that was the brainchild of a Dublin-based eye surgeon.
Three years ago, Dr Kate Coleman was playing computer games with her son when she had a eureka moment, realising that the same sort of interface could be a valuable training aid for cataract removal surgery, a procedure that saves people’s eyesight.
The eye surgeon was soon sitting at a table with the head of Microsoft Europe discussing her idea for a simulator that would speed up the training of surgeons to combat a very curable condition that is robbing millions of people in the developing world of their eyesight.
“Cataract surgery has changed beyond recognition in the last 10 years,” said Dr Coleman. “The operation can now be done in five to 10 minutes and it lends itself to this type of computerised training.
“The procedure costs just €25 and can prevent blindness or restore sight but there are not enough surgeons to carry out the surgery. It’s a race to train the most number of surgeons as quickly as we can.”
Having already set up the Right to Sight charity, Dr Coleman set about persuading the technology community to develop a training simulator that was cheaper and more readily available than existing approaches to teaching, which depend on the valuable time of surgeons.
Microsoft Ireland introduced Dr Coleman to the computer science department at TCD, which specialises in graphics and computer vision, and a prototype was built by five students. Its off-the-shelf components cost less than €100 and can work with a basic computer.
The team will compete in Egypt in the international finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup, having beaten 550 candidates to win the all-Ireland heat.
The competition, now in its seventh year, provides a showcase for third-level technology projects that can help solve societal problems.
“In the last four years of competing in the Imagine Cup, this is the one [project] from Ireland that could get commercialised quickly,” said Paul Rellis, managing director of Microsoft Ireland.
The influence of computer games is immediately apparent in the device. Two modified Nintendo Wii motion sensors detect hand movements that are transmitted to four infrared LEDs on the prototype hardware.
The sensors interact with rendered images of the human eye on a computer screen in a series of exercises.
Team leader Aiden Lynch explained one of its key benefits.
“In the case of eye surgery, surgeons would be looking through a microscope as they carry out a procedure so the first thing they have to do is learn to break the association of looking at their hands to see what they are doing.
“Rather than spend hours working under other surgeons, the simulator helps them hone their skills on their own.”
The device is just one part of a much bigger vision, according to Dr Coleman, and the Imagine Cup is a bonus on a longer journey. She talked enthusiastically about how online communities, such as Xbox Live, could be used for medical instruction with avatar doctors sharing skills across continents.
“You could have a surgeon in Ireland talking to a group of people in Africa. Using the technology, a doctor’s hand-to-eye co-ordination skills could evolve in parallel with their academic training,” she said.
At a time when turning third-level research into marketable products is considered key to Ireland’s future, Dr Coleman’s pursuit of a solution for cataract surgery training is a reminder that it can be a two-way street: innovation can also be driven by working individuals who know from experience how technology can make a difference.
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