According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 90% of the world’s 285 million visually impaired folks live in developing countries.
The vast majority of visual impairment—of which 76% is due to uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts—can be avoided or corrected. But care is hard to come by in remote rural areas.
Mobile computing and miniature sensors may change all that by putting high quality diagnostics in pockets for pennies.
Peek, a smartphone eye exam system, is a great example of the power of mobile medicine. Using a smartphone and an external clip-on device, Peek can perform simple vision tests, check for cataracts, and even scan the retina for disease.
Last year, we wrote about another mobile vision test called NETRA. Developed at MIT, NETRA, is an external device designed to measure nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, age-related blurriness, and pupillary distance. After trials side-by-side with traditional equipment in over 5,000 cases, NETRA says their device is as accurate as a $45,000 eye exam machine.
Like NETRA, Peek will use both mobile hardware and software to conduct eye exams. Unlike NETRA, Peek focuses on common, correctable eye diseases. The team hopes to diagnose a range of conditions—including cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy—as accurately as traditional eye exam equipment.