Vision for portable diagnostic technology

By winter, a pair of Winnipeg entrepreneurs aim to have portable vision and concussion-screening products circulating Canada.

“Designing a device that is portable, affordable and AI-based and smartphone-based is a puzzle,” Dr. Behzad Mansouri said, a prototype of the device on the desk in front of him at the Brain, Vision and Concussion Clinic off St. Anne’s Road on Monday.

He’s a neuro-ophthalmologist at the clinic. He’s also the co-founder of Neuroptek, the medical technology company behind headsets meant to help diagnose concussions and other vision and neurological injuries and disorders.

The products look like virtual reality headsets. Instead of games, users take visual tests they’d find at a doctor’s office. They might try to read letters or identify colours.

The headset, and corresponding technology, can track and analyze eye movement. Professionals handling the devices and reading the tests can decide, real time, if a patient needs further medical attention, Mansouri said.

“You can … put this in a backpack with your cellphone,” he said. “Our goal is to help (Canada’s health) system, to save so much money and, hopefully, have the tests readily available to the patients that need it.”

His wife and fellow co-founder, Dr. Neda Anssari, a neurologist, highlighted underserved communities such as northern Canada as a target audience.

First, though, the doctors are preparing for final Health Canada approvals.

They began Neuroptek nearly a decade ago, and spent years working on various designs. They’d both been frustrated about delays in patient diagnoses, they said, and the need to transport people to places where services were available.

It was during a gardening session — the two were talking designs again — that they came up with the current model: 45-degree, semi-transparent mirrors and space for two smartphones to be perpendicular to the other inside a headset. “We just ran with the idea,” Mansouri said.

The product, called EyeMirage, relies on smartphones as its “engine,” Mansouri said. Clinicians must download Neuroptek’s app.

The professionals choose a test, place their smartphone (Apple or Android) inside the headset and run the test accordingly.

Two phones are needed when both eyes must be examined simultaneously, Mansouri explained.

The phones will take pictures and videos of the eyes. Artificial intelligence can be used to analyze eye movement and longer-term trends, if a user has had past check-ins with an EyeMirage machine.

St. Boniface Hospital Research conducted clinical trials for Neuroptek, communications manager Robert Blaich confirmed.

The Winnipeg institution doesn’t provide commentary on companies’ activities, he added.

Four centres and 160 patients were involved in the trials throughout 2025 and 2026, Anssari said. Clinicians trialled four tests — including on visual acuity and visual field — and compared the results to standard practices.

Neuroptek’s tests were “validated,” Anssari said.

The company said it’s also gotten investigational testing authorization from Health Canada and a Food & Drug Administration listing in the United States, allowing for sales south of the border.

However, the doctors want to market in Canada first. They’re planning to submit a final application to Health Canada in a few weeks, with a hope of approval this summer.

Mansouri has circled September as the month to begin producing 300 sets of EyeMirages for purchase in Canada.

He and Anssari expect to tap their Ontario manufacturer for 2,000 devices once they open sales to the United States. They’ve started a company in Hong Kong, as well.

“We are hoping that very soon (Neuroptek is) going to be international,” Mansouri said.

They also hope to expand EyeMirage beyond the four tested functions, Anssari said: “The goal is to become a suite for eye testing that can do all of the necessary optometry (and) ophthalmology.”

Patient data is automatically stored in a profile on Neuroptek’s app, unless the user opts against data storage. (Anssari said data protection is in line with the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and Canadian provincial standards.)

Other companies have portable vision assessment tools, but the competitors don’t have the corresponding app and analytics, the Winnipeg doctors said.

They’re putting a roughly $3,500 price tag on each device — in Canada — and a monthly fee for the app that will depend on clinicians’ use.

At least 400,000 Canadians were estimated to have had a concussion at some point, according to 2019 data shared by the federal government. Each day that a concussion diagnosis is delayed, it increases the recovery time needed by 10 days, Mansouri said.

He and Anssari threw a celebratory event Friday for Neuroptek’s clinical trial results, U.S. approval and Medical Device Single Audit Program approval.

Neuroptek received a $640,750 grant from National Research Council Canada, spanning 2022 to 2025, to create EyeMirage.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com