# A Widefield, Handheld OCT system for Patients who are Unable to Cooperate

> **NIH NIH R43** · THEIA IMAGING LLC · 2022 · $145,597

## Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is the standard of care for the diagnosis and monitoring of adult retinal
diseases. However, most clinical OCT devices are large tabletop systems that are not suitable for use with
infants, young children, and patients that are unable to cooperate (I/YC/UC patients). As these patients cannot
communicate about disturbances to their vision, diagnosis of disease in these patients is difficult to achieve
before the disease causes irrevocable vision loss. One group of such patients are preterm infants at risk for
retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), who comprise 1.4% of the newborn population. Currently, most imaging of
I/YC/UC patients is performed with visible light fundus imaging, the previous standard of care for adults. There
are notable drawbacks to examinations with visible fundus cameras in I/YC/UC patients including patient
discomfort, stress (particularly for infants), and the presence of image artifacts (glare, low contrast from fundus
pigmentation, etc.) that make evaluation of the images challenging. OCT does not suffer from these drawbacks.
In addition, the use of commercial handheld OCT (HH-OCT) systems has led to significant insights into the
progression and management of ROP. However, HH-OCT has seen limited adoption due to 3 major limitations
with existing commercial devices: (1) they are heavy and slow; (2) have limited fields-of-views (FOV) compared
to wide-field fundus cameras; and (3) provide virtually no image analysis capability. We believe that the
development of a commercial handheld OCT system that comes with an interchangeable widefield
imaging tip and image analysis capabilities will significantly improve the diagnostic utility of HH-OCT
for screening of diseases such as ROP and ultimately improve the standard of care for I/YC/UC patients.
 Theia Imaging is led by a team of experts in the development HH-OCT systems. Our long-term objective is
the development of imaging systems that will bring state of the art imaging capabilities to the bedside of I/YC/UC
patients. These systems will decrease the need for examinations under anesthesia and provide clinicians with
valuable diagnostic information. Under current NIH support, Theia imaging is addressing the first limitation listed
above via the development and commercialization of the Theia T1 system: an ergonomic, high-speed, user-
friendly handheld OCT system to improve the standard of care of I/YC/UC patients. In this Small Business
Innovation Research proposal, we propose to address limitations 2 and 3 via the following specific aims. Specific
Aim 1: Development of a Modular Handheld OCT Probe with Non-Contact and Widefield Contact Modes.
We will develop a modular, widefield, contact tip that can be interchanged with the existing T1 system, and a
novel wide FOV scan pattern. Specific Aim 2: Development of Widefield OCT Segmentation, Analysis, and
Visualization Software with secure data management. We will acquire initial data and develop
segm...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10647616
- **Project number:** 3R43EY033604-01A1S1
- **Recipient organization:** THEIA IMAGING LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Al-Hafeez Zahir Dhalla
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $145,597
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2022-05-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10647616

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10647616, A Widefield, Handheld OCT system for Patients who are Unable to Cooperate (3R43EY033604-01A1S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10647616. Licensed CC0.

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