NHS70: How Has Technology Changed Our Healthcare?

Approximately 330,000 cataract operations are performed in England alone and it all started with the introduction of the intraocular lens. Sir Harold Ridley was the first to successfully implant an intraocular lens on 29 November 1949, at St Thomas' Hospital at London, however, it wasn't until the 1970s, following further developments in lens design and surgical techniques, that the lens found acceptance in cataract surgery. Laser eye surgery then followed on from the intraocular lens in the 1990s.