Innovative NZ contact lens helps to overcome disease

By KATHERINE HOBY

Talk about seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses ...

Hamilton optometrist Paul Rose is a man helping people worldwide to see the light.

And his contact lens design, the Rose K lens, has just received an award for innovation from the American Contact Lens Manufacturers Association - the first time it has gone to someone outside the United States.

Mr Rose, an optometrist for more than 30 years, developed the rigid plastic Rose K lens during the 1980s for people with a special eye condition called keratoconus.

It is a condition where there is a progressive thinning of the cornea, changing it from dome-shaped to cone-shaped.

Traditional glasses and lenses deal solely with normal-shaped corneas.

Mr Rose became interested in the condition early in his career.

"As I recall, about the second patient I ever saw had keratoconus."

Many patients were referred to him once word spread about his interest in treating the condition.

Other optometrists could not fit existing lenses properly to people in different stages of the condition.

He started playing around with his own designs. "I thought there had to be a better way of fitting people," he said.

"There were different stages of the disease and the lens didn't suit them all. I wanted to design something for all stages so I invented mark one of the Rose lens, but I got all the way to mark 12 before I was satisfied."

Mr Rose said the Rose K lens was much easier for practitioners to use. He made the design as simple as possible and gave it to six specialist practitioners for testing.

He built their suggestions into the design and put it on the local market in 1992. The development and testing took five years.

Within two years the Rose design was being used in 90 per cent of keratoconus cases.

The Rose K was manufactured and sold in Australia by 1994. After gaining approval, it was distributed in America in 1996.

It became the No 1 prescribed lens of its type in the US.

The lens is now sold in 50 countries, and sales last year for Mr Rose's company, Rose K International, totalled $3 million.

The first-fit success rate for the Rose K lens has been 75 to 90 per cent, depending on the country.

Late last year, Mr Rose went to Philadelphia to receive the Creative Design and Process Award for innovation in lens design and manufacture.

Wanting to improve the quality of vision from the original model, Mr Rose has completed trials on a new version of the Rose K.

It should be on the market by mid-year.

Mr Rose has also been designing a post corneal graft lens. He expects to wrap the design up soon and put that lens on the market.

"I didn't really think much about it when I started designing the lens. I just enjoyed the maths challenge of it," he said.

"I didn't think of the world, I was thinking of New Zealanders.

"When I get an occasional letter from someone who can see because of Rose K it is all worth it."

KERATOCONUS FACT FILE

Keratoconus, also known as conical cornea, is a non-inflammatory condition of the cornea in which there is progressive central thinning of the cornea, changing from dome-shaped to cone-shaped. Keratoconus comes from the Greek word meaning cone-shaped cornea.

The cornea is the clear windshield of the eye and is responsible for refracting most of the light coming into the eye. Therefore, abnormalities can severely affect the way we see the world, including simple tasks such as driving, watching television or reading a book.

Keratoconus is not a blinding disorder, as such, but does result in a greatly increasing near-sightedness (things far away out of focus) and irregular astigmatism (things look tilted).

It is almost always bilateral (affecting both eyes). A slowly progressive disorder, it takes years to develop and may halt at any stage from mild to severe.

It can be treated with lenses, or corneal grafts. Corneal surgery is quite a serious procedure. In some parts of the world there are cornea shortages.

About five New Zealanders per 1000 have keratoconus.