FDA approves Welch Allyn foray into iPhone imaging

SKANEATELES FALLS  —  Medical-device maker Welch Allyn is ready to push iPhones as eye scanners after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved one of its new products.

The Skaneateles Falls–based manufacturer received FDA clearance for its iExaminer hardware adapter and software, which allow some Apple iPhone models to capture high-resolution images of an eye’s retinal nerve or fundus. Welch Allyn designed the adapter and software to allow health-care providers to take digital images of eyes in different clinical settings, share those images with patients, and improve physicians’ efficiency.

IExaminer hardware adapters mount ophthalmoscopes — instruments used to view the interior of the eye — over iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S cameras. The software can save those images to a patient file, email them, and print them.

 “This is the first affordable device to give almost anyone, anywhere the ability to capture a picture of the back of the eye,” iExaminer inventor Dr. Wyche Coleman said in a news release. “I was able to take this very lightweight, portable, inexpensive iExaminer to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in sub-Saharan Africa and take a picture of a patient’s fundus. From the top of the mountain, I then transmitted it to a doctor at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, where he was able to analyze the image.”

Welch Allyn plans to ship iExaminers starting Feb. 11. The software will be available from Apple’s App Store.

The manufacturer employs almost 2,700 people in 26 countries.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com