The Meridia Vantage brings new functionality to Medmont’s renowned topographer family, including wide-coverage scleral mapping, extending the company’s industry leading quality and accuracy.
From Down Under to the top of the world, Medmont has made its mark. And it appears to have done it again with its latest device, the Meridia Vantage.
In geographical terms, Vancouver-based Mr Randy Kojima is closer to the latter.
But in the sector in which he works, it’s a company in Australia, at the other end of the planet, that stands at the top of the globe in corneal topography excellence and accuracy.
Kojima is director of technical affairs at Canadian contact lens manufacturing company Precision Technology. He also works as a part-time tutor at an optometry school and is a clinical advisor to a number of companies, including Melbourne-based optical device manufacturer, Medmont.
His work for the Australian firm includes research, education and clinical support for its R&D program, which has culminated in its latest device, the Medmont Meridia Vantage.
The Vantage, now available in Australia, is the evolution of its popular suite of Meridia topographers that also include the Classic and Pro models.
It has all the functionality of those earlier models, including what Kojima says is world-leading accuracy and precision in data and analysis, plus advances in two key areas – its greater ease-of-use for both practitioner and patient, and a new function to support accurate fitting of advanced contact lens designs.
The key to that, says Kojima, has been the development of single device that is both a corneal and scleral topographer.
“The Medmont is famous as a corneal topographer,” he says. “It’s considered the gold standard in its field.
“But now the imaging goes beyond the cornea to understand the shape of the sclera so we can better fit scleral lenses . . . key for this instrument is the ability to construct a scleral lens accurately and efficiently.”
As someone involved in the manufacture of contact lenses, Kojima understands this well.
To do that, the Vantage topographer can quickly produce maps that extend out to the visible sclera, with up to 20mm x 18.5mm caught in a single capture – with no stitching.
That, and the accurate, full-surface data it produces instantly, help those patients needing larger diameter lenses for various eye conditions, including patients with severe ocular surface disease, post-corneal transplant recipients and others with irregular corneas.
Medmont worked with Kojima to understand the eye beyond the cornea.
“The sclera is kind of a tricky surface to reflect off, because you have a clear membrane on top of the more opaque sclera,” he says, “and it’s tricky to be able to image the shape of the anterior surface, because it’s got that clear tissue on it.
“So Medmont figured out a way to put fluorescein in the eye and reflect off the dye so that you can get that light back to the instrument, back to the camera, and it can construct the appropriate eye shape based on that reflection.
“My expertise was applied in terms of how do we image the sclera and limbus and cornea in such a way that we would be approaching both the analysis and the construction of lenses in the best possible manner.
“What do we need to image? What data do we need to collect? What sort of accuracy do we need?”
Kojima says the well-respected accuracy of the Medmont device means practices can get scleral lens measurements and design right the first time, with less need for costly refitting.
“If the patient comes back and it doesn’t work, and you need to modify it, that wastes a lot of chair and patient time – going back to the practitioner’s office multiple times is a headache when you’re a busy person,” he says.
That is just one way the device improves practice workflows.
Previously, many practices involved in fitting specialty contact lenses would have needed more than one device.
The Vantage puts that powerful dual functionality into one small machine, which builds further on the capabilities of previous ones, including dry eye disease analysis and management.
“It’s definitely a Swiss army knife that way,” Kojima says.
“If you have the Vantage, you’ve got a tool that’s doing cornea, limbus and sclera imaging of the entire ocular surface and anterior segment. So you really have a powerful device.”
Medmont has worked hard to make that multi-functionality easy to use, for any staff member, further improving practice workflows.
“The software that comes with Medmont is very intuitive . . . it’s generally regarded as one of the easier instruments in the practice to teach somebody to use,” Kojima says.
“So one of your staff could be taking the topography, capture the photography and then have it ready in the exam room to be reviewed by the optometrist or the ophthalmologist, so it helps in terms of the efficiency.”
And it’s not just the practice that benefits.
There’s likely to be fewer headaches for the patient as well, thanks to Medmont’s strong focus on the ergonomics of the new device.
Mr Ryan Annear, the Melbourne-based R&D manager at Medmont, says improving ergonomics and aesthetics were key drivers in the design process.
“We put a lot of effort into making sure the ergonomics were good, and put a lot of work into getting the chin rest sitting right,” he says.
That has led to greater comfort for the patient and improved access for the practitioner, to help them manipulate eyelids.
He believes that’s an improvement on bulkier machines that sometimes need another staff member to assist.
That greater comfort and efficiency means practitioners “can capture images a lot faster, so the patient isn’t under examination for as long”.
It also means patients move quicker through the practice.
Annear acknowledges the help of practitioners who gave feedback with early prototypes.
The design of the Vantage was also supported by the Victorian state government, through its med-tech technology fund, which matched Medmont’s investment dollar for dollar.
“We were able to use that to help accelerate our development and fund help with the industrial design side of things,” says Annear.
“It made it a lot easier to access the right people with the right skills.”
Medmont partnered with Victoria company Outerspace Design in designing the Vantage’s look, feel and user experience.
The result is a product that highlights the best of Australian manufacturing, says Kojima.
“The Medmont name is recognised around the world for quality and for building medical instruments that are respected by practitioners in every corner of the globe,” he says.
“I think that is pretty powerful.
“Large countries like the US, Japan and Germany are building medical devices, but Medmont is seen as being the top.
“Nobody else is seen as providing better quality topography and better diagnostic data. ”
