Smartphones to Replace Ophthalmologists

MASSACHUSETTS, USA – There are many places in the world where good - or any - eye care is not available. For a big number of the people there this means that access to the simplest of glasses is blocked by the impossibility to get a prescription for those glasses. An innovative company called EyeNetra claims that this problem can be solved with the use of a simple $2 scope and a smartphone.

The idea is simple – the smartphone’s screen is used to project colored sequences, which are combined with the answers given from the person and a measurement of the refractive error, needed for a pair of glasses, is generated by an application in the smartphone. The company is trying to connect this measurement capability with actual glasses vendors, which to complete the prescription generated from the software.

Although considered helpful, this science breakthrough meets and criticism from Stanford University ophthalmologist, Dr Kuldev Singh, as the automated glasses’ prescription process  can't replace the care of a real doctor.