Diaton
I have one. (Actually its the original TGDc-01 "PRA" version)
I have used it occasionally for the past five years or so.
I agree that it is pretty variable, depending on how careful your technique is, especially as to keeping it upright, placement on the lid, direction of patient gaze, etc. (I seem to get a LOT of "sevens" with it)....as to managing a known glaucoma patient with it, I never would even consider it.....
BUT, if you ever need to go out of office and do a zillion screenings (Lions van with a broken NCT, etc, its at least something thats pocketable. I used to own a Tono-Pen, but the damn thing kept dying on me, and of course needs a numb drop, and its little rubbers. I ended up being told that mentor would no longer fix mine after the third time some diode in it burned out, so I traded it in for a $500 discount on the PRA.
I have mainly used it as a backup if a patient refuses a "better" (more familiar to ME) method. It is usually very easy to convince a patient who cant or wont do puff or any touch method to do it, once they understand what you are going to do, so I pretty much consider it a better-than-nothing method. I do it on their finger as a demo, and they can tell it doesnt hurt.
It is really easy on batteries compared to the Tono-pen. It uses one thin $3 lithium cell, and it lasts about six months or more. The Tono pen ate batteries for lunch, about monthly, at two each time.
As to cost, its a bit outrageous, I think...it seems like it should cost about half of what it does ($2500). Of course, same goes for the Tono-pen.
The instruction material is still a bit poor, and you can feel the translated from russian style as you read it. I actually rewrote the manual into proper English, and sent the doc to their website, but they never responded to me.
