Last week bionic eyes went on the market in the US and the Uk! (Please be aware, it’s a surgical shot for the link, if you’re squeamish about eyeballs this may not be the link for you)
The only thing I want to know is – why on earth is it 99k? There are so many people who would benefit from this kind of science. Does it cost that much to make?
Anything that would benefit the disabled seems to come with a massive pricetag. I hope someday these kinds of innovations can be available to a wider range of people who need them.
Couple things at work I think… First, it doesn’t cost that much to make 10 million of them. But there’s only so much demand (at first, st that price) so they’re probably not doing a lot of mass production yet. And even when they are there might be a lot of custom stuff. And second, even if it costs half that they know they can get people to pay because of what it is. Especially at first.
Both reasons suck. There are more than enough people who need it if they could bring the cost down.
Yes, first of all there’s a lot that goes into eyeball attachments – my scleral shell had to be molded to my eye first, and then hand painted before I could take it home with me. And that makes sense why it would be expensive. But that work cost me 5k. Plus, that’s OLD tech.
So yes, the reasons suck, but hopefully they’ll bring the cost down as Vyctoria suggests.
High prices for medical stuff really sucks 🙁 But my mum was one of the early patients for a new piece of tech similar to a pacemaker that has already reduced in cost by about 50% in the year since she had it installed. The number of meetings and tests she had compared to the new patients was really surprising as well.
Looks like this had a relatively small trial group, building the tech and performing the surgery probably hasn’t been streamlined yet. They’ll probably be learning more about associated risks and screening patients more thoroughly than they might need to do later on. The more places that do it the lower the price will get and hopefully it’ll be available to everyone soon!
I’d imagine there’s a lot of hands on dialogue with the doctors at this stage, to be sure!