At New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE), we’ve been on the cutting edge for 200 years and counting. By assembling a world-class team of researchers and clinicians, NYEE is accelerating the development of innovative surgical approaches, treatment breakthroughs, and enhanced imaging technologies to address the most difficult eye diseases. Driving this effort is the Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology Program, committed to taking the best and brightest ideas originating both within and outside NYEE, and safely and effectively introducing them to patients with the help of our expert clinicians and external industry partners.

Our Focus

Micro-interventional technologies are transforming the field of ocular treatment, and the Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology Program is committed to being a national micro-surgical center of excellence. Our mission is to introduce first-in-class technologies that are more than just incremental improvements but rather true disruptive innovations, which open new therapeutic windows into the treatment of eye diseases with a global impact on population health.

NYEE has been a leader in the field, not only by acting as a top recruiting site of clinical trials for some of these products, but also by quickly adapting them into the standard practice of care for our patients. Featured innovations at NYEE include:

• miLOOP: Micro-interventional Cataract Surgery
• First Micro-Interventional Robot for Ophthalmic Surgery in US

Interdisciplinary Engagement

Across all our work, collaborations are increasingly critical to success. NYEE’s innovation program has created an ecosystem for advancing research into the patient domain. First and foremost, we try to support any organic projects, clinical ideation, research, and studies that originate internally from our own faculty, residents, and volunteer staff. However, we are also outward facing, actively looking to introduce innovation from the outside into Mount Sinai’s clinical ecosystem—new technologies, diagnostic modalities, and therapies. This new way of approaching problems is often an intricate and non-linear process that requires cross-functional activities and close collaboration with investigators, industry sponsors, start-ups, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and local institutional review board (IRB), to name a few. 

Capitalizing on Internal Strengths

Among our internal partners are The Shelley and Steven Einhorn Clinical Research Center, which provides a comprehensive infrastructure for the many clinical trials undertaken by NYEE, often in conjunction with pharmaceutical and other academic institutions. The Einhorn Clinical Research Center was among the country’s top recruiting sites for the CyPass Micro-Stent and the InnFocus MicroShunt® Glaucoma Drainage System. Another valued internal partner is NYEE’s Advanced Retinal Imaging Lab, whose scientists and technicians have excelled at finding innovative new approaches to early disease detection.

The Ophthalmic Innovation and Technology Program is also capitalizing on Mount Sinai’s vast range of basic science and translational research capabilities. This often means teaming up with such highly respected organizations as the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology, the Black Family Stem Cell Institute, The Friedman Brain Institute, and the Eye and Vision Research Institute at NYEE.

Developing cutting edge treatments requires commercializing them if patients are to benefit, and NYEE is able to leverage Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP). MSIP opens the door to new relationships with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies to license and bring to market innovative ideas originating within NYEE laboratories.