IBMers saunter into hall of fame

BANGALORE: Three IBM scientists, James J. Wynne, Rangaswamy Srinivasan and Samuel Blum, have been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a not-for-profit organisation that honours men and women who have contributed to the welfare of mankind and promoted the progress of science and technology.
The team was recognised for inventing excimer laser surgical procedure, LASIK, to correct vision disorders.A formal Hall of Fame induction ceremony is scheduled to be held on September 21 in New York.
The team is currently working on a new method of laser skin resurfacing to alleviate the effects of aging including shallow wrinkles, discoloration and "age" spots, at IBM Research Centre.
LASIK is a method of surgically reshaping the cornea to correct the common visual abnormalities of myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), and astigmatism.
Team head James Wynne spoke to The Times of India about the technology and the benefits it offers vis-a-vis the traditional method. `` IBM invented the laser procedure for this surgery. LASIK permanently reshapes the cornea, the clear tissue in front of the eye using an ultraviolet excimer laser. IBM provided the resources, infrastructure and exploratory environment that allowed us working in a non-medical laboratory to discover a revolutionary technique to enhance vision.''''
Wynne said post LASIK procedure, patients no longer need to wear glasses or contact lenses to achieve satisfactory vision. Of all the surgical methods, LASIK is favoured because of the virtually painless, short recovery time and better vision.
This US Food and Drug Administration approved technology is currently being practiced by select physicians and over five million patients have been treated worldwide. IBM has recently patented the technology. In India, two hospitals, The Eye Foundation & Lasik Centre and Sankara Nethralaya in Tamil Nadu are practising LASIK.
The IBMers have already sought out collaborators at various hospitals and medical schools in New York and entered into joint research programmes to teach the medical establishment about the potential applications of excimer laser surgery. Of their many collaborations in cardiology, dermatology, dentistry, and ophthalmology, the application to corneal reshaping for vision correction became the major success.
The popularity of LASIK surgery has risen in large part because of the absence of pain and the rapid healing of the eye following the procedure. The procedure is so precise that it can clean pattern into a human hair without burning the strand of hair.