Temporary Blindness from Smartphone Use

"In Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, doctors detailed the cases of the two women, ages 22 and 40, who experienced 'transient smartphone blindness' for months," notes an Associated Press post. "The women complained of recurring episodes of temporary vision loss for up to 15 minutes. They were subjected to variety of medical exams, MRI scans and heart tests. Yet doctors couldn't find anything wrong with them to explain the problem." Read more.

MIT Smartphone Eye Exam Raises $4 Million

“An MIT mobile health spinoff wants to bring vision tests to smartphones and has raised $4 million as part of a Series A round. In a phone interview with MedCity News, EyeNetra COO and co-founder David Schafran confirmed the fundraise but was fairly tight-lipped about details such as how the tests would be delivered and assessed,” notes MedCity News. “Previously known as PerfectSight, EyeNetra developed a device called NetraG that can be applied to mobile phones to create a smartphone vision test. The device can generate a recommended power for each person’s eyeglasses and contact lenses. It is designed to test for nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. It also measures for the distance between eyes. Its website claims its technology is as accurate as autorefractors, but a good deal less expensive than their $45,000 price tag.The company also is developing a data analytics component to identify patterns and trends to develop specific recommendations for each patient.” Read more.

Another Smartphone App for "High-Quality" Retina Photos

"A US team has devised a smartphone system for capturing high quality photos of retinas to help diagnose eye diseases. The cheap and easy-to-use system could bring the advantages of affordable telemedicine to ophthalmology clinics," according to Medical News Today. "The researchers, from Massachusetts Eye and Ear, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, describe the new system and how they tested it in a recent online issue of Journal of Ophthalmology. The study evaluated the smartphone system's ability to capture photographs of the "fundus," or retina, in human and rabbit eyes." Read more.

A Smartphone & Plastic Bioculars Replacing an Autorefractor?

“Vitor Pamplona isn’t a doctor. He’s not even an optician. He can’t write you a prescription for glasses, or sell you a pair. Still, he’s pretty sure he’s going to disrupt the $75 billion global eye-care market.” That’s the start off a post on MIT Technology Review. “At EyeNetra, the startup he cofounded, goofy curiosities like plastic eyeballs line the shelves, and a 3-D printing machine whirs in the background. It’s printing out prototypes of a device that will attach to your smartphone and, in a minute or two, tell you what kind of eyeglasses you need. The device, called the Netra-G, is based on some clever optics and software Pamplona came up with—a way to measure the refractive error of the eye using a smartphone screen and an inexpensive pair of plastic binoculars. The whole setup might cost a few dollars to make. It does the job of a $5,000 instrument called an autorefractor.” Read more.

Study Says Smartphones Good for Visually Impaired but Doc's Not Recommending Them

"iPhones and other smartphones can be a huge help to the visually impaired, but few vision doctors are recommending them to patients, according to a study co-authored by a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine ophthalmologist," according to a Medical News Today post. "Researchers surveyed 46 low-vision adults from The Chicago Lighthouse and the Spectrios Institute for Low Vision in Wheaton, Ill. Participants' best-corrected vision ranged from 20/70 to complete blindness." Read more.

Giving the Poor Sight

 "For millions of people in the developing world, one thing stands between them and a job or an education: a good pair of glasses," notes NPR. "Quality eye care is often a luxury in areas where health services are scarce. So researchers and entrepreneurs are looking for breakthrough technologies to bring the cost of glasses and eye exams way down. One group thinks that smartphones could help provide needed access to vision health care. Researchers at EyeNetra, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff company, are working on a device that would turn the phones into eye exam machines." Read more.