About Us

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to share with you the Slit Lamp Shield and other products. I am passionate about this area after contracting swine flu from a patient during slit-lamp examination as a training ophthalmology registrar in Sydney in 2009, which occurred despite hand washing and wearing masks.

In early March 2020 I started to develop a slit lamp barrier device concerned about the worsening global novel coronavirus infection. Many of the existing barriers were intended as "breath guards", and too small to be effective against respiratory droplets. After intensive testing, the Slit Lamp Shield design was finalised. I had initially planned the Shields for my practice and thought perhaps a few other colleagues might be interested.

We were completely overwhelmed with the surge of demand that occurred in the days and weeks following the declaration of the COVID-19 global pandemic, from across Australia, NZ and internationally. We engaged the services of experienced Australian acrylic fabricators to turn their factories to producing large volumes of Shields daily, and our office was transformed into a packing and distribution warehouse while still maintaining clinical ophthalmic services.

I am incredibly proud of the efforts of my team of receptionists, assistants and orthoptists who worked incredibly hard during this period, spending many hours of overtime and on weekends to ensure clinicians received their shields as quickly as possible. There were several times I wanted to stop taking orders due to the overwhelming demand, but was spurred on by my staff who were motivated by the sole focus of providing additional protection for clinicians

I have subsequently been contacted by several ophthalmologists, optometrists and hospital departments requesting the development of further barrier devices. This has led to the creation of the OCT Shield, the Portable Slit Lamp Shield and the Phoropter Shield, and a few more products are on their way.

The success of the designs has come from being developed by clinicians who use the devices and equipment on a daily basis. We have noticed other companies recently increase the dimensions of their barriers, which can restrict access to the slit lamp controls. More recently other companies have tried to emulate our patented angled side-wings, but often again without the same awareness of the requirements.

We appreciate your support to allow us to continue developing innovative, clinician-led products into the market, that were (in retrospect) long overdue. We are grateful for the kind messages, positive feedback and ongoing support that we have received from colleagues globally. I wish you, your patients, staff and families the best wishes during this difficult time.

Kind regards,

Dr Neil Sharma and Team

BSc(Med) MBBS(Hons) MMed MPH FRANZCO

Medical Retina Specialist and Ophthalmic Surgeon

Eye and Retina Specialists, Sydney Australia