IrisVision

IrisVision’s beginnings stretch back to 2014. Co-founder Frank Werblin, Ph.D., a Guggenheim Fellow and UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience for more than 40 years, had discovered a number of cellular associations underlying visual information processing in the retina. His work on retinal chip implants to help the blind see led him to a solution that was less invasive and more affordable: a tool accessible for the wider low-vision community.

A chance encounter with an influential man whose daughter was challenged with low vision led to an offer: funding for the development of an invention to help those who have lost most, but not all, of their sight. Dr. Werblin got to work on the original concept for IrisVision, securing a grant from the National Eye Institute and collaborating with experts at Johns Hopkins University.

Ammad Khan, who brought a wealth of experience in mobile and augmented reality technology, enabling him to bring his years of clinical research from the lab to a scalable application.

IrisVision was incorporated in 2016 and delivered its first commercial low vision assistive device available to consumers in 2017. As of today, there are approximately three and half thousand people using IrisVision products to see and achieve their activities of daily living.

Recognizing our team’s abilities, IrisVision’s aspirations have grown to not only help, but prevent, vision loss. The effort to expand access between patients and providers by delivering more frequent, and earlier patient insights directly to clinicians’ desktops holds the potential to save the sight of 93 million adults in the US alone who are at high risk of serious vision loss.