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Despite regular eye examinations, clinicians missed the warning signs that led to the loss but with more thorough testing Leifs condition would have been detected and he would likely have retained his vision.

So medical technology designer Douglas set about inventing a fast, non-intrusive whole-retina scanner, which was patient-friendly enough for a five-year-old but would give examiners a full view of the eye, unlike the partial glimpse which most machines provided at the time.

The result was Optos, which uses laser technology to monitor any changes in the eye that would otherwise go undetected using traditional examination techniques and equipment.

Not only is the scanner now used in hospitals across the country, the machine also helped save the vision in Leifs other eye after it detected a new retina problem several years later.

The technological innovation is now celebrating 11 years since it was recognised with the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, the UKs most prestigious prize in the field and known as the Oscars of the engineering world.

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There are about 11,000 devices worldwide and a staggering 70-100 million people have been imaged using the scanner, potentially saving the sight of millions globally.

What was needed was a device that could image the entire eye in a very patient-friendly way and could be used by a non-expert practitioner

Douglas Anderson

It was an achievement Douglas, 66, could have not imagined when he was reeling from the news that Leif had irrecoverably lost his vision in one eye.

It was a very emotional time, admits Douglas, from Fife in Scotland, who was running his own design consultancy developing medical products.

I reflected on the reason my son lost his left eye he had a top-rated clinician and you dont get in front of one of them unless youre already advanced with some kind of symptomatic disease.

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"The people who tend to do standard eye examinations on children are opticians or junior doctors and because of the uncooperative nature of many young children, the chances of a full retina examination were about 20 per cent. So chances were that lots of problems went undiagnosed until it was too late.

Although Leifs right eye was being monitored, Douglas worried it could suffer the same fate as the left.

Our clinician tried to reassure me about what he could see but I became progressively less convinced about his ability to do a full retinal examination on a small child.

From this point, Douglas decided that there was a need for a device which gave a high-quality retina examination, particularly for difficult patients.

I thought the manual examination being used was out of date. When I thought of other disciplines such as cardiology and orthopaedics, they had much better imaging systems available to do comprehensive examinations.

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Ophthalmology, on the other hand, was a backwater which was using devices that had been developed 50 or even 100 years before.

What was needed was a device that could image the entire eye in a very patient-friendly way and could be used by a non-expert practitioner.

Douglas started working on his ambitious plan back in 1992 after securing investment 20million over the past 20 years and unveiled his first devices back in 2000.

It took another 10 years to go from the first machines we had in the marketplace to the level of refinement we have today. We are now on the third generation of machines, he says.

Obviously my background in making medical products was useful but it has been a big challenge and was and still is very much a team effort. In 2007 Optos received a Queens Award For Enterprise and the following year Douglas was named European Inventor Of The Year.

Last year an Optos display was installed in the National Museum Of Scotland. The device was instrumental in saving Leifs second eye when he had another retinal detachment aged 20.

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Douglas rushed him to hospital during a weekend only to find there were no consultants available.

Fortunately there was an Optos machine but there were no clinical operators. So Leif and I convinced the staff to let us image his eye and he was scheduled for urgent and immediate attention the next day, says Douglas, who also has a daughter Orea, 35.

Leifs eye was saved but without the immediate diagnosis it was at risk.

The machine played a big role with that. Leif is now 31 and his right eye is in good health although he does require continuous monitoring.

He has sight that is capable of reading and driving a car so his vision is very good. Im amazed weve managed to get so far. We make the product today that I hoped for 25 years ago. It means there are many parents out there who wont have to go through what we did all those years ago.

For more information visit optos.com

Read more:
Douglas Anderson: My invention saved my son's eyesight - Express.co.uk

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