ABSTRACT

Emergent Innovation Systems and the Delivery of Clinical Services:
The Case of Intraocular Lenses

CRIC Working Paper No 9

J Stan Metcalfe & Andrew James

For people over the age of 50, the threat of cataracts is an ever present concern. Since 1949 new techniques have been developed which have involved the removal of the cataract and its replacement by a plastic intraocular lens. As its name suggests it is placed inside the eye, unlike a contact lens which sits on the eye’s surface. The inventor of the intraocular lens was an English clinician, Harold Ridley. This paper traces the development of this innovation, the trail and error nature of the innovation process and the importance of complimentary developments in materials, design and operative techniques. At the turn of the century the insertion of intraocular lenses is one of the more frequently performed surgical procedures. Yet until the early 1980s the technique was viewed with considerable hostility by the ophthalmic profession. The paper also traces the transformation in the treatment of patients and in the quality of the medical service they receive.

This work has been carried out as part of the ESSY programme coordinated by Professor Malerba of CESPRI, Bocconi University of Milan.

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