“OCT has become a must-have device in every practice”

Behind the scenes with Optopol Technology

What makes the company and its approach or products unique?

Optopol Technology was founded in 1992 by Adam Bogdani as an ophthalmology equipment distribution company in Poland. Optopol was the first company to commercialise spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) in 2006. I think it gives us a very important place in the sector, because currently spectral domain technology is widely used by all OCT manufacturers.

What are your goals as a company?

Our goal is to constantly enlarge the number of markets in which we are present and to maintain our position as a one of the top OCT and Visual Fields manufacturers in the world. Our goal for the coming months is to enter Japan with all our products and to start selling our Revo FC130 in the US. We have our branch in US which is currently successfully selling our visual field analysers.

Our ambition is to provide very innovative and multi-function products to our customers that are fairly priced.

Optopol Technology

Jaroslaw Wolski

What is the latest product, solution, or update, that you have released and why does it stand out from the crowd?

Our latest products are the REVO FC 130 and the REVO FC OCT devices equipped with a fundus camera. Both models provide high quality imaging of the posterior segment as well as the whole Anterior Chamber without any add on lens. Onboard artificial intelligence (AI) support, optical biometry and corneal topography functionalities set our devices apart from standard OCT products.

How would you describe Optopol’s growth in the UK?

OCT has become a must-have device in every practice, but what is especially important for the UK market is that the unit has to be equipped with a fundus camera. Since 2019, when we launched Revo FC, which combines the OCT with a fundus camera, our average growth of sales in the UK is 60% per year. The UK is the fastest growing European market for Optopol. Such a great success would not be possible without our UK partner BIB Ophthalmic Instruments. Their commitment to promote Optopol products, the service BIB provides to our customers, and their knowledge, all led to our huge success.

The UK is the fastest growing market for Optopol

Beyond the brand

How would you describe the OCT market in the UK? How does this differ from the rest of Europe?

The UK market is undoubtedly a rapid growth opportunity sector for OCT manufacturers who can provide OCT producing very high-quality tomograms combined with speed and ease of use. Optopol Revo series meets these criteria nicely, hence our rapid growth. Plus, we offer additional software modules such as OCT-A, OCT-B and Topography, some of which are unique when combined with the OCT.

Its important to note that the way in which the UK market is structured is quite unique, whereby both High Street retail shops or optometrists involved in primary care, as well as hospital eye departments and private ophthalmology clinics can all use and benefit from OCT. The rest of Europe is very different, where in the main, it is only the ophthalmology sector that can perform clinical diagnostic tests such as OCT.

How has the use of OCT changed? How do you see this evolving further?

Scanning speed and tomogram quality have been the main advancements since we provided the first commercially available OCT on the world market back in 2006. As the market evolves, the size of devices may reduce with advancement in technologies, and DICOM will play a major role in allowing for better integration and storage of images.

Scanning deeper into the tissue (important for earlier glaucoma screening advancements) as well as the race to provided wider field scans, are both important areas for future product development.

What are some of the challenges you see for the OCT sector?

The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is to have a very high-quality device reasonably priced for the customers. As a technological company, we have to constantly invest in our the development of our products. The combination of large investment expenditures and reasonable prices I see as a challenge.

How do you see technologies such as artificial intelligence affecting OCT?

We take the AI revolution very seriously. A few years ago we created the AI Software Division headed by Professor Krzysztof Krawiec from Poznan University of Technology. Our current OCT software is already using AI support. We will shortly be releasing a module that enables retina segmentation using AI algorithms. I’m sure in the future AI will be widely used in OCT software.

What are the biggest opportunities for OCT and instruments in the optical sector that you see currently?

Remaining at the forefront of the capabilities of Spectral Domain OCT technology is key to our success and in turn, this maintains our biggest opportunities for further global growth.