The MRC patent for the Intuitive Colorimeter - 'an apparatus for obtaining a desired tint' - no mention of its therapeutic use
The MRC is liberally name-dropped by proponents of the Intuitive Colorimeter, Intuitive Overlays and Precision Tinted Lenses. You don't have to read very far to find the name of MRC being slipped into the text. In my opinion, this is to lend some sort of respectability to a 'thin' and unconvincing evidence base.
Some examples
The paper 'A Systematic Review of Controlled Trials on Visual Stress using Intuitive Overlays and the Intuitive Colorimeter' that appeared in the December 2016 issue of the Journal of Optometry (in my opinion it is not a systematic review but more on that in a future post). The authors name-drop the MRC. For example, in paragraph two of the introduction, it is stated that 'for these reasons, this paper reviews evidence from research using the Wilkins (MRC) system. '
The following line appears in a letter to the British Medical Journal written in response to an editorial which was critical of visual stress treatment 'they can then be tested with the MRC-patented Intuitive Colorimeter to see if coloured lenses help to a greater extent'
Letter from a well known firm of London Optometrists -
"I tested xxxxx with the Wilkins (MRC) Colorimeter and he showed a sufficiently consistent response"
The paragraph below comes from 'anonymous' who responded to an excellent blog post by Angela Bunyi at scholastic.com 'Coloured Overlays a Rose-Colored Glasses of the Reading world'.
'Visual stress is the correct medical term. If you do a google search with the terms: Dr Bruce J. W. Evans and Arnold Wilkins, you'll find a wealth of scientific FACTS- NOT OPINIONS with numerous PUBLISHED scientific studies done under the authority of The Medical Research Council,a British Governmental Agency, which holds the rights to the Intuitive Overlays,Intuitive Colorimeter and Precision Tints'
This paragraph comes from a firm of optometrists in Birmingham. Their visual stress and dyslexia page states that -
Professor Arnold Wilkins and The Medical Council designed and carried out this research with the use of The Intuitive Colourimeter to prescribe precision tinted lenses. It is this system that is used at Eye Opticians in our consultations. The system is validated by The British Dyslexia Association and The College of Optometrists in the UK and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA.
Or another one from a firm of optometrists in London.
Here at The Eye Place we now have an intuitive colorimeter to find the optimal precision tint needed to provide relief from visual stress. This instrument was developed by Professor Arnold Wilkins and the Medical Research Council.
What is the connection with the MRC?
At the time Professor Arnold Wilkins developed the Intuitive Colorimeter he was working at the applied psychology unit in Cambridge which was funded by the MRC. According to his' book 'Reading through Colour' this unit was disbanded when the MRC withdrew support. This is not of itself a criticism, funding is tight and sometimes even good research does not continue to attract support. That said, it does suggest that scientific peer reviewers at the MRC did not find the research on colour and 'visual stress' as compelling as its proponents do. Furthermore, if you are going to 'leverage' the reputation of the MRC to bolster the credentials of the Intuitive Colorimeter, you also have to accept that the subsequent loss of MRC funding detracts from the reputation of that product.
As is only right and proper, the MRC owns the intellectual property rights to any developments that occur in laboratories that it funds. This meant when the Intuitive Colorimeter was developed at the applied psychology unit, the patent was owned by the MRC.
The patent (which now seems to have lapsed) can be found here and it only states that the colorimeter is 'an apparatus for obtaining a desired tint'. There is no mention of visual stress or the therapeutic use of the Intuitive Colorimeter.
The historic link with the MRC does nothing to bolster the evidence for the use of the Intuitive Colorimeter as a therapeutic device.
