MANITOBA INNOVATION AT THE INTERSECTION OF NEURO-OPHTHALMOLOGY, DIGITAL HEALTH AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
How a Manitoba garden conversation, two smartphones, a few mirrors and a clinical problem sparked the creation of EyeMirage®.
Some innovations begin in sophisticated laboratories. EyeMirage® began in a garden.
Neuroptek Corporation Inc. is a Manitoba-based medical technology company founded by Dr. Behzad Mansouri and Dr. Neda Anssari, physicians and scientists who saw a persistent problem in healthcare: sophisticated eye and neurological examinations often depend on expensive, stationary equipment and access to specialized expertise.
They wondered whether much of this examination could instead be made digital, objective, portable and accessible.
The breakthrough came during an unlikely moment.
While gardening together, Mansouri and Anssari were discussing a technical challenge they had been trying to solve: how could two smartphones positioned perpendicular to one another simultaneously display visual stimuli and capture the patient’s eye responses?
Their conversation turned to optics. What if a semi-transparent mirror could reflect the image from one smartphone toward the patient’s eye while allowing the camera of the second smartphone to observe the eye through the same optical pathway?
The idea seemed simple enough to test.
They gathered cardboard and mirrors purchased from a local retail store, along with lenses from Mansouri’s medical practice, and began assembling a rudimentary prototype. It was hardly what anyone would imagine a future medical device should look like.
But it worked.
That first cardboard prototype became the foundation for years of engineering, clinical research, intellectual-property development and regulatory work—and ultimately for EyeMirage.
Today, EyeMirage is a smartphone-based digital neuro-visual assessment platform designed to bring multiple components of the eye and neurological examination into a single workflow. These include visual acuity, colour vision, contrast sensitivity, visual fields, pupillometry and eye-movement analysis, with applications in concussion and neuro-ophthalmic assessment and a growing roadmap of AI-enabled capabilities.
The vision extends beyond one specialty. Neuroptek sees potential applications across optometry, ophthalmology, neurology, concussion care, emergency medicine, primary care and remote communities—settings where portability and access to objective assessment can make a meaningful difference.
The company has now progressed from that homemade prototype toward commercialization. Neuroptek has completed a 160-patient clinical study, established ISO 13485 and MDSAP-certified quality systems, achieved FDA listing for applicable components of its platform, and submitted its Health Canada Medical Device Licence application. Regulatory expansion is also underway internationally, while commercial production is targeted for early 2027.
Neuroptek has also developed an international patent portfolio around EyeMirage and related technologies, while continuing research in artificial intelligence, imaging, remote examination and future retinal applications. The longer-term ambition is to build not simply another medical device, but a continuously evolving digital eye-and-brain examination ecosystem.
“Our goal is to make sophisticated elements of the eye and neurological examination more objective, standardized and accessible,” says Mansouri. “Technology should complement clinical expertise, not replace it, and help clinicians reach patients wherever care is needed.”
From a conversation in a Manitoba garden to a technology preparing for international commercialization, Neuroptek’s story reflects something fundamental about innovation: transformative ideas do not always begin with sophisticated equipment.
Sometimes they begin with a problem, a conversation—and the willingness to build the first prototype out of cardboard.
Dr. Neda Anssari, CSO and Dr. Behzad Mansouri, CEO – Neuroptek
