Melbourne Rapid Fields (MRF), an Australian online visual fields testing platform, is preparing for global growth with the appointment of interim CEO Dr Anabela Correia. Dr Correia is also the Director and CEO of Inner Maven, a company that specialises in commercialising technologies in the life sciences, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.
MRF, which is owned by Glance Pty Ltd, has been developed and refined in collaboration with The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and the University of Melbourne.
With customers in Australia, New Zealand, India, and further afield, the platform has now been used to perform 100,000 visual field tests globally.
Cataract and glaucoma specialist Associate Professor George Kong, who is a Director of Glance, said the main customers are optometry practices, alongside a growing number of ophthalmology clinics.
“Our biggest customer is Bailey Nelson – we’ve been partnering with them for six years, helping them scale and grow – it’s been a fantastic journey”, he said. “Several other optometry chains are using MRF as well – including 1001 Optometry and Optical Co”.
Validated for both in-clinic and home-based visual field testing, MRF was independently selected by Sydney glaucoma specialists/clinician scientists Dr Jeremy Tan and Professor Jonathan Crowston as the basis of their home-based visual field testing research for rural Australia supported by the Australia and New Zealand Eye Foundation.
“The benefit of home-based visual field testing is that researchers can collect frequent testing data rather than waiting for patients to return to the clinic. This means they can more readily observe trends in the effect of new treatments and interventions,” Assoc Prof Kong explained.
EVOLVING FOR USER EXPERIENCE
Since its commercial launch in 2017, the device-agnostic visual field testing platform has been evolving. Two years ago, the look and feel of the platform was enhanced to improve the user experience and this year, a validated faster testing protocol has been introduced.
“We know that many patients don’t like the traditional visual field test, so a faster protocol allows testing to be done in a shorter time, which is less stressful. It also means that eye specialists undertaking community screenings in remote areas and developing countries can test many more people than they could previously,” Assoc Prof Kong said.
MAJOR WINS IN 2025
MRF had several major wins last year. Chief among them, the company said, was the awarding of an Australian patent for its use of an artificial intelligence-enabled web camera that assists with online-based visual field testing. This is Glance’s first Australian patent.
Additionally, MRF has been the focus of eight peer-reviewed publications in 2025 alone.
The technology was a finalist in the highly competitive InnovationAus 2025 Awards for Excellence (Health Tech). The Health Tech category “celebrates digital health platforms, medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, pharmaceuticals, and biotech innovations that contribute to effective healthcare systems and address societal needs”.