Not everyone can say they helped prevent countless people from going blind and saved the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars each year.
Dr. David Huang, medical researcher at Oregon Health & Science University Casey Eye Research Institute, is one of them. In his early 1990s, he and his two partners invented a type of imaging technique that became known as “optical coherence tomography.” This is a type of imaging technology that Huang describes as “ultrasound for the eye.”
This technology can detect early signs of eye problems caused by glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and more. If detected early, doctors can protect the patient’s eyes.
Hwang and the two partners involved in the effort, James Fujimoto and Eric Swanson, will receive this year’s prestigious award. Lasker DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award For the development of groundbreaking technology.
“The ability to generate high-resolution cross-sectional images of the internal structures of the eye in real time, painlessly and without physical contact, was unprecedented,” Lasker officials said. “OCT has revolutionized ophthalmology by enabling doctors to quickly detect and treat vision-impairing retinal diseases, saving the sight of millions.”
The organization, which became known as the Lascars, has been awarded annually since 1945 to honor advances in medical research.
Huang became interested in imaging in 1990 as a novice researcher in a lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His supervisor, Mr. Fujimoto, was conducting research on high-speed lasers and their potential uses in medicine.
It was exciting and sometimes daunting. Huang believed that smaller, less invasive, and more accurate imaging techniques were needed, like MRI without the claustrophobia and ultrasound without the educated guesses. But were they right? Were they betting on the right technology?
“There’s no roadmap for doing something completely new,” Huang said.
Fujimoto built the initial system in the mid-1980s.
“It went well, but not very well,” Huang said. “The system wasn’t strong enough. And the laser was cumbersome.”
They asked Swanson, another MIT researcher, to design and build a machine that would be smaller and lighter, yet still have all the capabilities the technology had to offer.
“It was unbelievable. Eric is very smart. And he had access to machines that I didn’t know existed,” Huang said.
Swanson returned with a machine the size of a laptop computer.
They brought their first commercial system to market in 1994. Lasker Prize officials said, “By combining optics, telecommunications engineering, and medicine, Mr. Fujimoto, Mr. Hwang, and Mr. Swanson have transformed fundamental research discoveries into technologies that have benefited many people. “I converted it.”
No wonder local eye doctors were cautious. Only time and positive reviews published in academic journals will increase industry acceptance.
OCT is now widely accepted in the medical community and its use is expanding. It is used to detect amyloid plaques found in the brains of patients with heart disease and dementia.
“This is a very good time for Lasker to recognize this technology because we are on the cusp of a variety of new applications,” Huang said.
This technology has resulted in significant savings. OCT can detect problems or missing problems. In other words, screening can help determine when patients no longer need the expensive treatments currently available. He believes the technology saves Medicare and Medicaid $1 billion annually.
When it comes to money, fans are silent when asked how much money they made from OCT. He laughed that he had a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering, as well as an MD and PhD, but refused to pursue his MBA.
Huang moved west in 2010 to attend Oregon Health & Science University. He serves as deputy director and director of research at his Casey Eye Institute at OHSU. He and Casey’s small team continue to improve OCT imaging technology. He is a professor of biomedical engineering and ophthalmology. He runs his two startups that are not in the OCT niche market. And he sees patients once a week.
He is thrilled to receive Lasker and to be recognized for his role in developing this “beautiful and elegant imaging system that saves vision and saves lives.”
— Jeff Manning; jmanning@oregonian.com