Bristol (UK)-based medical technology company Siloton has secured an £8.4 million ($11.1m) contract from Innovate UK to accelerate the development of its handheld optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology, potentially bringing advanced retinal imaging closer to patients in community and home settings.
Awarded through Innovate UK's Contracts for Innovation: Quantum Missions Primer initiative, the two-year contract will support the development and clinical evaluation of Siloton's GiraffeOCT system, which uses miniaturized photonic chip technology to deliver retinal imaging without the bulky components associated with conventional OCT equipment.
The company expects the funding could shorten its development timeline by up to two years, advancing plans to introduce both in-clinic and at-home versions of the technology.
"Winning this Innovate UK contract allows us to accelerate the development of our systems, explore manufacturing and assembly in the UK, and help a groundbreaking new technology be adopted by the NHS more quickly," said CEO of Siloton, Alasdair Price. “Many early-stage companies struggle to get beyond the well-known ‘valley of death’ in developing new products – particularly in healthcare – but this will support us through that crucial phase, bringing the Siloton system closer to being in patients’ hands and building a technology that can be used worldwide.”
OCT is an established imaging technique for diagnosing and monitoring retinal diseases, but conventional systems remain largely confined to hospitals and specialist optometry clinics due to their size, cost and complexity.
Siloton's GiraffeOCT aims to address these limitations by incorporating sophisticated optical components onto a photonic chip smaller than a £1 coin.
The resulting binocular-style handheld system is designed to make retinal imaging more affordable, portable and accessible, potentially enabling patients to undergo regular monitoring without traveling to specialist ophthalmology departments.
Under the new agreement, Siloton will collaborate with Sunderland Specialist Eye Hospital to conduct clinical trials of its in-clinic device, providing patients across North East England and North Cumbria with access to the technology during its development.
The York Health Economics Consortium will also analyze data generated during the trials to refine estimates of potential cost savings for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
The initiative comes amid mounting pressure on ophthalmology services in England. According to figures cited by Siloton, ophthalmology recorded approximately nine million outpatient attendances during 2023-24, making it the NHS' busiest outpatient specialty. By the end of July 2026, nearly 623,000 patients were awaiting ophthalmology appointments, accounting for 8.7% of all NHS waiting lists.
If successfully validated and implemented, portable OCT could support more frequent disease monitoring outside hospitals, potentially reducing unnecessary appointments while enabling clinicians to identify signs of disease progression that warrant further intervention.
However, the technology's clinical performance, cost-effectiveness, and suitability for home monitoring will require further evaluation.
Beyond developing GiraffeOCT, Siloton intends to use the funding win to raise further investment for its second-generation CheetahOCT system, designed to image different retinal layers and potentially expand the range of detectable conditions.
The company also plans to integrate its second-generation BlueJay chip architecture, which is being developed for use in astronaut eye monitoring, and expand the cloud-based platform supporting its imaging technology.
The company is also planning to secure further private investment to support ongoing product development and commercialization.
The award aligns with the UK government's broader ambition to shift healthcare delivery from hospitals into community settings, alongside its commitment to introducing quantum sensing-enabled technologies into the NHS by the end of the decade.
"The NHS needs new technologies and new ways of working, and it needs them quickly," Price said. “This contract is a first step toward streamlining the process and ensuring patients in the UK get access to the same innovations as other countries, as soon as they are deployed rather than years after approval.”
For ophthalmologists, the project represents another step toward decentralized retinal imaging, with its potential clinical impact dependent on successful trials, regulatory approval, and integration into existing care pathways.
Source: The Quantum Insider.
