Advanced atrophic AMD, also known as geographic atrophy (GA), is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in older adults, affecting more than 5 million people worldwide.

The international, multi-center trial was co-led by José-Alain Sahel, M.D., director of the UPMC Vision Institute, Daniel Palanker, Ph.D., professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, and Frank Holz, M.D., professor of ophthalmology at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Of the 32 participants who completed 12 months of follow-up, 26 achieved clinically meaningful improvements in visual acuity, and 27 participants reported using prosthetic vision at home for reading numbers or words. On average, participants improved by 25 letters—about five lines—on a standard eye chart when using the device. A total of 81% of participants gained 10 or more letters.