Carlos Hernández recognized as an innovator in the global effort to improve vision

Boston, MA—PlenOptika, a biomedical technology company bringing cutting-edge vision technology to front-line vision care professionals worldwide, announced today that Carlos Santiago Hernández, Director of Engineering, was named an Eye Health Hero in the Innovators category for 2020 by The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). PlenOptika is maker of the QuickSee™, the world’s most accurate handheld autorefractor.

According to the IAPB, The Eye Health Heroes program is dedicated to recognizing and celebrating “young and upcoming frontline staff, volunteers, support staff and more within the eye health sector,” focusing on “change-makers, innovators, and emerging leaders from across all areas and backgrounds in eye health.”

“I’m truly honored and humbled,” said Hernández, who was the first PlenOptika team member to join the company’s founders, in 2015. Intrigued by the challenge of the global shortage of eye care professionals, he applies his engineering talents to solving the complex problem.

“How do you make a single device work equally well for children, adults, the elderly, and special needs patients?” he asked. “How do you design algorithms so that the autorefractor works in any setting? How do you make a user interface and ergonomics intuitive for operators who may be illiterate? How to design a sophisticated medical device so that it can be manufactured affordably to be adopted around the world?”

“Addressing health disparities is very personal for me, as I myself come from humble origins,” he added. “What motivates me is the hope that one day QuickSee could impact millions to billions of people worldwide.”

Hernández made key contributions in QuickSee’s hardware and software development. Since its commercial launch in 2018, QuickSee has been used to measure more than two million people in more than 25 countries, and is especially valuable to eye care professionals in mobile or global health initiatives.

Carlos Hernandez refracting a person with QuickSee

Peer-reviewed clinical studies evaluating QuickSee have demonstrated that it can be used to prescribe eyeglasses in low-resource settings. In addition to use by innovative clinicians in traditional optometric settings, it can be used by governments, NGOs, and optical retailers to effectively scale-up community health and micro-entrepreneur initiatives for sustainable access to eyeglasses.

The Eye Health Hero awardees will be recognized in a virtual ceremony, and over the next year be involved in an exclusive series of events and media opportunities.

“We are proud of Carlos’s achievements and recognition,” said Shivang Dave, PhD, Cofounder and CEO of PlenOptika. “He has emerged as a brilliant engineer with global health contributions that will benefit millions of lives. He is an inspiration to aspiring engineers and global health contributors everywhere and will continue growing as a leader in innovation, tackling the largest problems in eye care and beyond.”

PlenOptika is a Valued Supplier on the IAPB Standard List, and the technology powering QuickSee was developed in the international collaboration the Madrid-MIT M+Visión Consortium, with significant support from Comunidad de Madrid, US-Indo Science & Technology Endowment, Seeing is Believing, the National Institutes of Health.

To learn more about Carlos’s work to improve eye health globally or the QuickSee™ Wavefront Refractor, contact Shivang R. Dave, PhD at +1-617-862-2203 or write at https://plenoptika.com/contact/.

###

About PlenOptika
PlenOptika designs and produces tools to help vision professionals perform their best care anywhere. Inspired to solve the global burden of poor vision, PlenOptika developed QuickSee™, the world’s most accurate handheld autorefractor. The company and device have been recognized in international health and technology competitions, including Beazley Designs of the Year, Essilor See Change, and Silmo D’Or. Vision professionals and NGOs have used QuickSee on over 2 million patients at least 25 countries to transform their lives with clear vision.