■ Scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, with clinicians from the Singapore Eye Research Institute, have invented a new “pen camera” that makes it easier for doctors to diagnose patients with glaucoma. Called the GonioPEN, it could help tackle the eye disease with its ability to detect the type of glaucoma in a faster and cheaper manner. It causes negligible discomfort, unlike the current gonioscopes, which are glass scopes that must be pressed against the eye of the patient for clinicians to look at the eye’s drainage canal.

The GonioPEN allows physicians or trained technicians to capture more detailed images of the eye drainage canal with minimal contact at the side of the cornea. Physicians then use software that aids diagnosis to analyze the images. In a recent pilot study, all 20 patients found the GonioPEN more comfortable than the conventional handheld lens used with a microscope.