INNOVATION |
EYE CARE APPS
In fact, smartphones have driven most of the recent innovations in ophthalmology, noted Dr. Akkara in a 2018 paper called Innovative Smartphone Apps for Ophthalmologists.1 He shared that there are some apps (such as the Eye Handbook), which do a variety of things like comprehensive patient vision assessment, ophthalmic calculations, international classification of diseases and more — while many other apps are specialized in one or a few tasks only. “[There are] apps for vision testing including acuity, contrast, color vision and stereo acuity. There are also apps to test optokinetic nystagmus, to do optometric calculations, to do virtual perimetry and grade various ophthalmic signs,” said Dr. Akkara.
Eye Screening? There’s an App for that! by Brooke Herron
J
ohn Davis Akkara, MD, is an ophthalmologist at Westend Eye Hospital in Cochin, India. But before he committed to medicine, he was fascinated by computers and technology. “Even while in medical school, I learned mobile software programming and developed a few apps,” he said. “During ophthalmology residency and fellowship, I continued to merge my passion for ophthalmology and technology to develop a few ophthalmology apps as well.” Since then, he’s developed numerous smartphone apps for both ophthalmologists and optometrists to assist with screening, diagnosis and more. Among them are the 3D Atlas of Ophthalmology (for stereoscopic atlas of eye conditions); Eye Grader (for grading systems in ophthalmology); Eye Know Tamil (a local language helper app for eye care specialists); and iDoctor JD (a
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vision testing app). These are currently available in the App Stores for Android and iPhone. And now, with the COVID-19 pandemic making access to eye care more difficult worldwide, telemedicine and apps such as these can contribute to the effort to avoid preventable blindness and provide continued medical care. Below, Dr. Akkara discusses the different apps available to eye care professionals and their patients — as well as their potential impact in eye care.
Riding the tech wave “Smartphones are now an essential part of modern daily life and the medical field is no exception,” began Dr. Akkara. “With the simple phrase, ‘there’s an app for that,’ many problems of modern life have been solved — even in eye care for doctors and patients.”
He continued that there are several innovative apps that enable easy, affordable and portable vision testing via smartphone. “Other apps may be useful for a quick reference (EyeGrader), learning (3D Atlas of Ophthalmology) or smartphone fundus photography (HopeScope, Ullmann Indirect & MIIretcam),” explained Dr. Akkara. Apps that assess near and distance visual acuity (VA) have been found to be reliable in an emergency setting, although there is still some standardization needed in the brightness and contrast of the smartphones and optotype sizes. Dr. Akkara said there are also apps that help patients: There are now several apps where can set a medication schedule to ring an alarm and remind the patient to follow the correct dosing of medications. These are especially useful in chronic diseases like glaucoma. There are also apps that stimulate vision in cataract, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy patients, and in different types of intraocular lenses (IOLs). “Patients also get the benefits from faster and affordable eye care,” he said, adding that patients may also find medication reminder apps very useful. Further, in 2019, Dr. Akkara authored
| October 2020
