Our History

In the early 1980s, Frederic B. Kremer, MD, developed the first ultrasound pachymeter to measure corneal thickness for the radial keratotomy (RK) market.  Dr. Kremer patented his pachymeter and founded Accutome, Inc. (Malvern, PA). In 1991, Brian Chandler, a retired naval officer with over 20 years of service, was appointed president of the company.

Growing the Company

The company transitioned from an RK-based company to one that primarily supports the refractive, cataract, and glaucoma markets. Accutome’s five business divisions include Accutome Rx, Accutome Ultrasound and Equipment, the Repair Services Group, Diamond Knives and Surgical Instruments, and the Sales and Marketing Division. Mr. Chandler applied lessons he learned from Naval aviation to grow the company. He implemented business ideals such as the need for close customer support and a “can do” attitude for new products and services. He recognized that even though the ophthalmic community is large, it is a small community for building reputations. According to Mr. Chandler, ophthalmic surgeons and fighter pilots have one thing in common: they both can be tough to deal with if they are unable to operate due to equipment or material issues, be it in the skies or the OR.

Company growth has been driven by product development and services. New product recommendations come from the surgeons, technicians, and nurses that we work with on a daily basis. It is rare that a new idea or better instrument is not suggested at a major exhibition, a training event, or from an overseas mission trip. Today, after 25 years of constant growth in products and services, Accutome has several strategic partnerships, and a worldwide presence in the ophthalmic market. While the annual sales and number of employees reflect a growing and sophisticated medical manufacturing company, Accutome works hard to maintain a small company teamwork style for our customers.

Quality Service

Accutome’s daily goal is service and quick response for customers. All of our employees—no matter what their role—are financially incentivized to make this happen. When a customer calls Accutome he is greeted by a human—not an automated service—and calls are answered during extended working hours. Voicemail is reserved for the back office. Accutome has multilingual employees on site to support our customers from around the world. If Accutome does not make a product, sell it, or repair it, the customer is directed to a qualified source. Fast turnaround time is Accutome’s mission. Repair turnaround time for diamond knives is 24 hours and most equipment repairs take a matter of days. Loaners are available to customers if the repair turnaround time exceeds their expectations. 

The Invention of the Ultrasound Pachymeter

By Accutome Founder, Frederic B. Kremer, MD 

In the late 1970s, I was a resident in ophthalmology at Thomas Jefferson University and Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. When I was a resident, there was no such thing as refractive surgery. In fact, the concept, for all practical purposes, did not exist. I began considering surgical methods to replace spectacles, an idea that was perceived by almost everyone as rather “crazy.”But was it?

I had heard that Svyatoslov N. Fyodorov, MD, of Moscow was performing a procedure called radial keratotomy (RK). The procedure created purposeful radial incisions in the cornea in order to flatten and reshape it, thus decreasing refractive error. I made plans to visit Dr. Fyodorov. In Russia, I spoke with Dr. Fyodorov and his staff, who had first performed the RK procedure in patients 5 years earlier. After I examined one patient who had undergone the corneal incisional refractive procedure in 1974, I became an instant believer! By the time I began performing RK in patients, only nine other doctors had performed the surgery in the United States.

As a resident, I felt that it was important to have accurate, real-time measurements of the cornea so that incisional depths could be accurately determined and placed for the procedure. The objective was to make the RK incisions sufficiently deep to have a long- term effect but to avoid making them so deep that that they penetrated the anterior chamber. Later, I learned that it was also important to not make incisions too deep in order to retain corneal stability.

I searched to find an ultrasound device that would take these measurements, but none existed. I applied what I learned as an electrical engineering major at Drexel University (Philadelphia) and I began investigating what frequency was being used and what parts would be needed to build such a device. After significant experimentation and evaluation, I created the first ultrasound pachymeter to measure corneal thickness, a device that was more accurate than pachymeters using light beams viewed through a slit lamp. This pachymeter made it possible to measure the cornea at the time of surgery, in the exact location of the incisions prior to setting the length of the blades. I took this device with me to Moscow in 1980; Dr Fyodorov immediately recognized how useful it was for RK.

It took approximately 2 years to bring the ultrasound pachymeter to market. During this period of time, Accutome (a combination of the words “accurate keratome”) was formed. The ultrasound pachymeter was initially slow to have an impact on the ophthalmic market because there were a number of physicians that did not believe that this was a better, more accurate, significantly faster, and more convenient way to measure corneal thickness. However, over the course of several years, more and more surgeons recognized that the ultrasound pachymeter was more accurate than other available techniques, could be used on different locations of the cornea as well as intraoperatively. Thus, the ultrasound pachymeter became the standard.