Seeing time on the bedside clock

“My mother, my grandmother, my brother, and my uncle had macular degeneration. Then it came to me,” she says. Strickland is one of a handful of Emory Eye Center patients who have regained their sight due to a new FDA-approved implantable miniature telescope (IMT).

The surgery, covered by Medicare, is for patients with end-stage AMD who are over 75 years of age and have not had cataract surgery in the eye to be implanted. Emory’s researchers, who participated in the device’s clinical trials, will follow the patients for five years after implantation.

ress: “The good news is that she is seeing the fourth line on the eye chart.”

Eleanor Strickland, from Columbus, Georgia, was legally blind from the effects of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The disorder had affected other members of her family too.

Before the IMT surgery, there were few options for patients with AMD. The implant is giving patients “the ability to do those everyday things we all take for granted, such as seeing the faces of family members,” says Emory cornea surgeon John Kim.

The patients who have received the implantable device so far have differed in what they experience after implantation. Some have had double vision as part of the healing process, “a good thing that lets us know input is truly coming from each eye,” says occupational therapist Donna Inkster. In Strickland’s case, Inkster already sees encouraging prog-