I was catching up on some reading this weekend and came across an interesting article about an app that could potentially change the way we provide third world eyecare. I’ve been been on a couple of eyecare missions over the last several years and know first hand how challenging it is to bring a lot of eye exam equipment, glasses, and eyedrops to remote regions of the world.
A mobile app called Peek (portable eye examination kit) has put several eye tests into a smartphone so that detailed testing can be brought to areas of the world where no eye exams are available. Someone who is trained, but not necessarily an eye doctor, can take a phone and a clip-on eyepiece to perform some evaluations of the eyes. The use of Peek can help diagnose eye diseases so that patients can be triaged appropriately for treatment. The app can also store a patient’s contact information and GPS data to help follow up on these same patients.
Peek does not replace an eye examination by an eye doctor and is not intended for public use to self-diagnose. It’s meant to reach those 80{4422c3e9d6d956ffe17c4a9703f8867adf328a271a08c00de098d82d34d0cfb5} in third word countries who have preventable blindness. The device is currently being tested in Kenya, Antarctica, and Scotland.
I’m looking forward to using this device on a future eyecare mission!