27 October 2026
Sense Medical has provided three optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems to an eye health research project in Uganda.
The research programme is led by the International Centre for Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in partnership with the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute (MRC/URVI) and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, Makerere University and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.
The project is part of an oculomics study held within the existing General Population Cohort in Kalungu District, Uganda. The cohort covers around 25,000 people across 25 villages in Kalungu District, within the research field station and clinic based at Kyamulibwa.
The study aims to recruit approximately 12,000 adults aged 18 and over and collect ocular imaging as well as clinical, laboratory and other health data.
Researchers will use the data collected to investigate relationships between ocular biomarkers and major health conditions, with the longer-term aim of developing and validating artificial intelligence models for a range of systemic and ocular diagnostic tasks.
Sense Medical has provided three Canon Xephilio OCT R1 systems to support the ocular imaging component of the study.
The company said the laptop-based configuration of the OCT R1 will enable flexibility for the project operating across multiple locations and help the team take diagnostic imaging capability closer to the communities participating in the research.
Abdul Jahangir, sales director of Sense Medical, said: “The ambition behind this project is incredibly exciting. Exploring what information from the eye can tell us about wider health has the potential to open up new approaches to understanding and detecting disease.”
“We are proud that our equipment and our team can play a small part in enabling that research,” he added.
Joe Blamire, clinical support engineer, travelled to Uganda to install the three OCT R1 systems and provided clinical and user training.
Blamire also provided practical guidance on servicing and maintenance to enable the project team to be self-sufficient.
Jahangir commented: “We wanted to make sure the team on the ground had the training and practical knowledge they needed to use the equipment confidently and support its ongoing operation.”
Sense Medical will continue to provide remote technical support and training as the project progresses.
The research project aims to explore how information contained within the eye could help improve understanding, prediction and diagnosis of systemic and ocular disease.
Professor Matthew Burton, director of the International Centre for Eye Health and professor of global eye health at the LSHTM, said: “This project represents an exciting opportunity to explore how information from the eye can help us better understand wider systemic health.”
Burton explained that having access to reliable, high-quality OCT imaging forms an important part of making the research in Uganda possible, commenting: “We are extremely grateful to Sense Medical for their support and for working so closely with our team to make this happen.”
He shared: “Joe’s expertise, enthusiasm and commitment on the ground have been invaluable, and it has been a real pleasure to work with him and the Sense Medical team.”
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