Optomap: no more blurry eyes

March is the time of year when I go for my annual eye exam. I stopped by the clinic yesterday to make the appointment and noticed that my opthamologist is now recommending a new diagnostic tool called Optomap to patients. So new, in fact, that insurance companies don’t cover it yet and therefore will cost patients $30 over and above their co-payment. Optomap takes about five minutes, according to the nurses, and eliminates the need to have your eye dialated for the exam; the machine creates a digital image of the retinal surface of the eye, which are stored as part of your permanent medical file for future comparison and it claims to enhance a doctor’s ability to detect eye disease conditions. Seems like a good way to spend $30, eh?