New retinal camera for ASPREE

ASPREE have received $24,500 in funding from the Jack Brockhoff Foundation to purchase a retinal camera which will be used to determine if daily low-dose aspirin can prevent or delay the onset of age related macular degeneration (AMD), a major cause of visual impairment responsible for half of all legal blindness in Australia.

 The retinal camera will be installed in ASPREE’s RetCam Van, a mobile clinical consulting room  which has been fitted out thanks to funding of $88,974 from the Phyllis Connor Memorial Trust).

Eye assessments will be conducted on 6,000 elderly Australians at participating general practices, community centres, shopping centres and other public places, as well as in homes of the elderly throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria.

If the ASPREE study shows that aspirin is able to reduce the incidence or progression of AMD, it could preserve the sight of millions of older people around the world.  The study findings will potentially help inform physicians and ophthamologists and lead to the introduction of treatment strategies world-wide.