Inventor recalls eye imaging breakthrough

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), a non-invasive imaging technology now standard in 40 million eye procedures per year, was invented by clinician-scientist David Huang. While an MD-PhD student in the Harvard-MIT Program, Huang applied interferometry—a technique for measuring light's time-of-flight with extreme precision—to medical imaging. This approach, developed with MIT professor James Fujimoto and engineer Eric Swanson, used infrared light to generate detailed 3D images of the retina and coronary arteries, a significant leap from the 2D images of previous methods. Their groundbreaking findings were published in Science in 1991, establishing OCT as a new imaging modality.

Following the invention, Huang completed his training as an ophthalmologist while his co-inventors commercialized the technology. Today, as director of research at Oregon Health and Science University’s Casey Eye Institute, Huang leads efforts to expand OCT's capabilities, including OCT angiography for imaging blood flow and OCT optoretinography for mapping retinal cell function. He credits the breakthrough to his unique position at the intersection of engineering and medicine, which allowed him to identify and solve a critical clinical problem. Huang's work has been recognized with the Lasker Award, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.