TIME Coolest Inventions 2004: Verisyse Lens

More Categories:

Invention of the Year

Zoom Zoom

Sporting Life

Wet & Wild

Overboard

Hi, Robot

Safety Net

For Your Health

Fresh Ideas

Cook Smart

Hot & Cold

Now Hear This

Cutting Edge

Fire Fighter

Light Touch

Kid Friendly

E-mail this to a friend

previous | next

TAKING THE BLINDERS OFF
Verisyse Corrective Lens

Inventor: Jan Worst
Availability: Now, $3,000 to $4,000 an eye
To Learn More: visioninfocus.com
You're sick of wearing glasses, but the LASIK people turned you down. Here's help: the new Verisyse corrective lens, which treats nearsightedness too severe for laser surgery to fix. The lens is implanted between the cornea and the iris through a 6-mm incision. If there are complications (infection, cataracts), it can be removed. A competing implantable lens, the Visian ICL, developed by Staar Surgical, still awaits FDA approval.

Next: Oral HIV Test

BY ANITA HAMILTON, MARYANNE MURRAY BUECHNER, LEV GROSSMAN, SIMON CRITTLE AND SORA SONG / WITH REPORTING BY HANNA KITE AND YUKI ODA/TOKYO