‘Digital twin eye’ tech debuts as Shanghai fosters med-tech innovation hub

The International Center for Innovation in Medical Optoelectronics was inaugurated in Putuo District on January 13. The inaugural International Ophthalmology Innovation Summit was held concurrently.

Centered on the theme of "Medical Optoelectronics Technology and Ophthalmology Medical-Engineering Innovation," the summit aims to establish a high-level international platform for innovative collaboration. Its goal is to transform and incubate cutting-edge medical optoelectronics research achievements from academic institutions and promote them in the global market.

The establishment of the center marks a new starting point in the field of interdisciplinary innovation for ophthalmology and medical engineering, injecting fresh momentum into the global ophthalmic health industry.

The center will assemble an optoelectronics R&D and engineering team with interdisciplinary backgrounds and establish a CDMO platform. This will help accelerate the clinical translation of early-stage optoelectronics technologies from universities and hospitals, while also building channels for rapid global commercialization and adoption.

TowardPi Medical globally debuted its high-end surgical microscope at the summit. The launch of its innovative "digital twin eye" feature is set to advance ophthalmic surgery toward multimodal, digital, and intelligent transformation, creating greater clinical value.

"Traditional ophthalmic surgical microscopes only allow surgeons to see a flat, two-dimensional view during operations. Our new technology enables surgeons to see real-time three-dimensional stereoscopic s, allowing for timely intraoperative assessment of patient conditions and precise surgical decision-making," said Wang Yingqi, general manager of TowardPi Medical Group.

Currently, Putuo District is home to over 3,500 digital health enterprises, with a complete industrial chain largely established. The scale of its related digital health industry reaches 72.6 billion yuan (US$10.40 billion), contributing over 6 percent of the district's tax revenue, with its economic contribution growing by more than 10 percent year-on-year.