Soon, Get Your Eyes Checked by Peeking Into a Smartphone

CHENNAI: Remember that room in the back of your eyewear store - the one that’s long, loaded with devices intended to make your eyes twitch and a lit screen with letters that shrink in size as you move from top to bottom? Pretty soon, your not-so-friendly optometrist’s lair just may well be replaced by a smartphone. All you’ll have to do is simply ‘Peek’.

British researchers have developed tools for a smartphone - including a plastic clip on lens over the camera and an app - that will allow just about anybody to conduct eyes tests on a patient, using a smartphone.

Created to assess blindness-causing conditions in rural and backward regions where eyecare is not accessible, ‘Peek’ has been tried and tested in Kenya these past few months.

“We are planning to set up two pilot projects in India. In Kenya, we targeted schools where teachers can detect symptoms of eye trouble in their students, but in India it may work better in rural areas and slums,” said Dr Mario Ettore Giardini, lecturer in Digital Health from the University of Strathclyde.

One centre will be in Hyderabad, while the other is still undecided, said Giardini, while speaking at a workshop conducted by the UK and India on Affordable Medical Diagnostics and Devices, hosted by the British Deputy High Commission.

Through three simple methods, the phone app can measure a person’s visual acuity and also do retinal imaging. “At the moment, we can detect cataracts and glaucoma using the app, but we’re working towards getting diabetic retinopathy on our radar too,” he said.

‘Peek’ may well be a godsend for a country like India, where there are in excess of 18 million people with eye problems and blindnes. “If you look at where the blindness is concentrated, countries like India and Kenya jump right out at you,” said Giardini. “And the concentration of ophthalmologists is inverted - a country like Kenya has only 42 eye specialists and 20 of them are in Nairobi!” he added wryly.

As there are more people with access to mobiles than water, tests like this will help reduce the blindness burden immensely. http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Soon-Get-Your-Eyes-Checked-by-Peeking-Into-a-Smartphone/2015/02/12/article2664374.ece