Nidek Announces Winners of the 4th Annual Image of the Year Award

Nidek has announced the winners of the 4th annual 'Image of the Year' Award. With the contest theme, "invisible to visible," this year featured diabetic retinopathy (DR) cases which often require examination of the fovea to the extreme periphery. 

Eye care professionals worldwide voted online and onsite at AAO 2023 to choose an image captured by Nidek's Mirante Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope. The Grand Prix winning submission is “20/25, for How Long?” from Marlon Rafael García Roa, MD, of the Instituto Mexicano de Oftalmologia, Mexico.

Figure 1. A Mirante 163°* ultra-widefield color image of a right eye with diabetic retinopathy taken from the temporal position when the patient presented in early 2023. The image shows fibrovascular traction in the near periphery, temporally, and superiorly, and a subhyaloid hemorrhage. Laser scars are also visible for 360°.

"It is an honor for me to receive the Nidek award for image of the year, to have participated and competed with many high quality images from colleagues around the world, presenting a case of a pathology, which is unfortunately, increasingly common in our midst," said Marlon Rafael García Roa, MD, of the Instituto Mexicano de Oftalmologia, Mexico, who won the award. "The Mirante platform is a device that, due to its multimodality and ease of use, allows us to carry out the most complete structural and functional evaluation of our patients with different retinal pathologies, increasing the effectiveness of diagnosis due to its ultra-wide field and therefore making it more useful for the treatment and timely follow-up of our patients on a daily basis.”

The detailed case presentation is available here. 

Second place, a two-way tie, was awarded to “Not enough laser” from José Gerardo García-Aguirre, MD, of Asociacion para Evitar la Ceguera en Mexico, Mexico, and “Diabetic Retina” from Roberto DG Maliwat, MD, DBPO, of Nueva Ecija Eye and Laser Center Inc., Philippines. In third place was “Laser scratched canvas sparkled with red blots - PDR with PRP laser spots and a localized preretinal hemorrhage” submitted by Horia T. Stanca, MD, PhD, FEBO, and Antonia Elena Ranetti, MD, from "Carol Davila" University of Medicine, Romania. All submissions and the details of this event are available here.