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The EyeBag company is pleased to announce that The MGDRx EyeBag has recently made its first export to Switzerland
Teifi has an eye for innovation
Taken from the Halifax Courier
AS a consultant ophthalmologist working in Calderdale hospitals, Teifi James has treated many eye complaints.
Modern-day living can leave the eyes feeling gritty, sore and tired and in need of some TLC. This can often be because office workers sit for hours in front of computer screens, tending to blink less frequently in dry atmospheres created by air-conditioning units.
Now Mr James has invented the EyeBag, a medical device which has already found favour with doctors across Britain. The elliptical bag, which contains flax seeds, is popped into the micro wave for between 30 and 60 seconds, warming the seeds in the same way that wheat bags are heated to give relief to aching limbs. The soothing warmth frees up glands in the eyelid which are responsible for a secretion which refreshes the surface of the eye with each blink. Sometimes the glands become blocked, resulting in the secretions being unable to reach the surface of the eye and causing eye complaints. The heated EyeBag, when placed gently on the face, transfers warmth to the eyelid, unblocking the glands. Gentle massage of the eyelids afterwards allows the softened oily secretions to reach the eyeball. Mr James is one of nine consultant ophthalmologists working across Cald-erdale and Huddersfield. He also works at Elland Hospital, one of nine Bupa hospitals sold in July to Legal & General Ventures and which are now known as Classic Hospitals. Mr James said: "If you go to an eye clinic they will say you need to warm your eyelids with compresses. "People have been sitting by basins of hot water with face flannels. But they keep going cool, it's a palaver, they don't do it and then they keep going back to their GP." So he started thinking about how he could resolve the issue and, after trial and error, invented the EyeBag, which is made by the Natural Wheat Bag Co, Huddersfield. Mr James, who is originally from Wales, went to medical school in London and worked in general medicine before becoming an eye specialist. He worked at St James's Hospital, Leeds, for five years before being based in Halifax and Huddersfield. A father of two, he has lived in Halifax since 1991 and has worked in the town since 1997. The EyeBag costs £20 and is available in Halifax at Heath Pharmacy and Vision Express, Woolshops, Halifax. A story in the BMA News medical journal two weeks ago has already prompted inquiries from doctors keen to try the device. Ten per cent of profits will be given to the Vision 2020 project which aims to eradicate preventable world blindness by 2020.