The history of Ophthalmos and the Optyse
It was in the 1950's that Roger Armour, then a medical student in Lahore, began thinking about ophthalmoscopes.
Why, he wondered, were they so complicated and so expensive?
Couldn't these useful instruments be simpler and cheaper? Fast forward half a century and the answer is 'yes'. Optyse is born, a pocket sized, lens-free ophthalmoscope that sells for half the price of a conventional instrument.
"It was after a conversation with an ophthalmologist friend who'd been to Africa prompted him to get serious about the idea of a lens-free ophthalmoscope. "It took me six months to work out what to do. I then got some material from an art shop and made one. It looked such a mess I was certain it wouldn't work." He tried it anyway - first on his wife. "To my amazement I could see the retinal vessels in her fundus. And then I examined the cat..."
In May 2003 Roger Armour started working with Team Consulting Ltd a world leading product design and development consultancy and acknowledged experts in the lifescience arena. Together the project team turned Roger's product concept for an easy to use lens free ophthalmoscope into a commercially viable product. In June 2004, Team and Roger formed Ophthalmos Ltd to finalise development, manufacture and commercialise the lens free Ophthalmoscope.
The rest is history.


