Creating an Autofocusing Intraocular LensCreating an Autofocusing Intraocular Lens

Think Google has an exciting potential device in the glucose-reading contact lens it has in development? Try having an electronic intraocular lens that automatically refocuses for near, intermediate, and far distances using complex algorithms.

That is exactly what serial entrepreneur Rudy Mazzocchi has with the early-stage company Elenza, which Mazzocchi says is presently considering acquisition opportunities. How Elenza got to this device, with plans for CE Mark approval within 18 to 22 months, is a great example of how advanced electronics are spurring innovation.

Mazzocchi-- who was delivering a Tuesday morning keynote address about his entrepreneurial journey at MD&M West in Anaheim, CA--described himself as a technology lover who is a "sharped-tongued dragon" at storytelling. But he also acknowledged that Elenza greatly benefited from having its venture capital partners hook it up with a chief technology officer who could assemble so many technologies.

None of the technologies were particularly new, but, together, they made for an extremely innovative device.

There was a liquid crystal optic (think windows darkening in response to an electrical signal). There was a sophisticated implantable algorithm run on application-specific integrated circuits at the micron level. When the FDA said tiny lithium-ion batteries were verboten, there was the need to procure tiny solid-state ceramic rechargeable batteries.

And there was the need for inductive magnetic resonance charging, since something implanted in the eye can't be plugged in. The FDA also required Elenza to find a way to seal all of the implanted device components within a thin layer of glass.

In the process, Elenza has amassed 189 licensed, issued, or pending patents.

"We believe we own microelectronics inside the eye," Mazzocchi says.

It will be interesting to see if Elenza's technology plays a major role in other contact lens-related developments, such as Google's quest to create a contact lens with embedded electronics able to read glucose levels.

There also could be a contact lens solution for the need to have bulky headsets in order to view virtual reality environments.

Bellevue, WA-based Innovega with its iOptik platform embedded a center filter and display lens at the center of a contact lens. The optical elements are smaller than the eye's pupil and therefore do not interfere with vision. A projector can hit those tiny optical elements, which guide images to the retina. But the retina is still getting the overall normal vision provided through the entire pupil, so the brain ends up viewing the projected images and the overall normal field of vision as one.

Considering this landscape Mazzocchi sees Elenza to have been one of his successes. Over his 25 years of senior management in the medical device industry, he has mostly managed to latch onto innovative technologies that worked. It was the ability to raise venture capital or get reimbursements from health providers that proved to be stumbling blocks when the startups turned out badly.

"That's the only thing that keeps me up at night--access to capital," says Mazzocchi, who was named one of Ernst & Young's 2004 Entrepreneurs of the Year and the Business Intelligence Group's 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year.

Chris Newmarker is senior editor of MPMN and Qmed. Follow him on Twitter at @newmarker.