MANASSAS, Va., Oct. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Notal Vision®, Ltd., a privately-held ophthalmic company focused on an innovative, cloud-based platform for remote diagnostic testing, today announced that John S. Pollack, MD, an internationally recognized retinal clinician, surgeon, and educator, has been elected to Notal’s Board of Directors.

“We are honored to welcome Dr. Pollack to our Board,” said Quinton Oswald, Notal’s Chief Executive Officer. “As evidenced by his professional accomplishments and contributions to the retina community, we believe that Dr. Pollack will provide expertise and experience that supports our goal to be the leader in optimized management of retinal diseases through remote diagnostic testing.”

Dr. Pollack is a Partner with Illinois Retina Associates in Chicago and an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Rush University Medical Center. He is President-elect of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) and sits on the Board of its philanthropic Foundation. An active researcher and lecturer, Dr. Pollack is the co-founding Editor of the annual ASRS Preferences and Trends (PAT) Survey which is the largest international survey of medical and surgical trends in retina, and co-founder of The Winning Pitch Challenge, a medical competition that encourages and supports innovation in ophthalmology. Dr. Pollack has helped to start three physician-focused companies, is an advisor to multiple biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and sits on multiple commercial and non-profit boards.

Dr. Pollack has received many honors and awards, including the ASRS Senior Honor Award and the Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He has been listed in “Best Doctors in America” and “Guide to America’s Top Ophthalmologists” and named by Ocular Surgery News as one of the “OSN Retina 150 Innovators in Medical and Surgical Retina”. Recently, he was inducted into the “Retina Hall of Fame,” which honors ophthalmologists for their exceptional lifetime achievements and contributions to the field of retina.

“I am pleased to join the Board of Directors at this exciting and transformative time for Notal,” said Dr. Pollack. “Notal’s innovative platform is driving the move to cutting-edge, personalized care for retinal disease by seamlessly connecting patients and their healthcare providers. I’m looking forward to contributing to the continued success of ForeseeHome® – the first remote diagnostic testing device for early detection of conversion from intermediate dry AMD to wet AMD – as well as the development of the Notal Home OCT (optical coherence tomography), which will provide patients with access to intuitive, home-based OCT testing and alert physicians to the development of fluid occurring between office visits. Both represent important advances in retina care,” said Dr. Pollack.

About Notal Vision’s Cloud-Based Platform

Notal Vision has established a seamless, cloud-based platform that connects healthcare providers and their patients through personalized, remote detection of ocular diseases.  ForeseeHome® is an FDA-cleared diagnostic testing device which uses this platform to monitor visual changes in patients at risk of vision loss from wet AMD. It utilizes a patented technology, which is based upon Preferential Hyperacuity Perimetry (PHP), to detect visual distortions often before the patient notices any symptoms. ForeseeHome was evaluated in over 1,500 patients in the AREDS2 HOME study and demonstrated detection of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) at better levels of vision compared to standard care methods.  In the study, office visits triggered using ForeseeHome were 16 times more likely to detect wet AMD than regularly scheduled office visits alone.  Additionally, 94% of patients who progressed to wet AMD with the use of ForeseeHome kept their functional vision (20/40) versus 62% of patients using other detection methods. ForeseeHome is covered by Medicare and most private insurances. To learn more, visit www.foreseehome.com.

The Notal Home OCT, the next application of Notal’s cloud-based platform, will enable patients to perform technician-free OCT at home with appropriate fixation – a critical component, especially for elderly patients. The Notal OCT Analyzer (NOA), a proprietary artificial intelligence learning algorithm developed in-house, performs automated analysis of the Notal Home OCT scans and generates an alert to the physician once fluid in the retina is present. The NOA sends a report that includes the top three cross sections with evidence of activity to the physician for review, at which point the patient may be brought to the office for evaluation and treatment. NOA can also analyze the output of other commercial OCT devices, and published study data indicate that the performance of NOA was similar to that of a physician when both are compared to a panel of experts. The Notal Home OCT has the potential to truly individualize retinal disease management.

About Notal Vision, Ltd.

Notal Vision was founded by two ophthalmologists and is committed to providing the eyecare community with innovative, home-based, diagnostic technologies that support visual health in patients with retinal diseases. ForeseeHome is the first FDA-cleared remote diagnostic testing device that detects and characterizes visual distortion in AMD patients as an aid to monitoring choroidal neovascularization progression. To learn more, visit www.notalvision.com.

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SOURCE Notal Vision