14 DAY TRIAL // A recent report in the science journal Investigación y Desarrollo describes a novel piece of software that works by turning otherwise perfectly ordinary smartphones into diagnostic tools.
The software in question, developed by experts at the Medical and Surgical Center for Retina in collaboration with Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education scientists, is designed to detect early signs of eye disease.
It does so by relying on the phone's camera to search for and pin down abnormalities in the anatomy of a patient's retina. The abnormalities are then interpreted by a trained physician.
For instance, variations in the thickness of the retina are an indicator of diabetic macular edema, an eye condition linked to diabetes and characterized by swelling of the retina as a result of leaking blood vessels, specialists explain.
The sooner this eye disease and others of its kind are diagnosed, the easier it is for medical experts to address their symptoms and prevent their patients from going blind.
The software is meant for general physicians
The scientists who came up with the idea to turn smartphone cameras into diagnostic tools for early signs of eye disease say they have no intention to have their software replace proper ophthalmologists.
Rather, the software is meant to be used by general physicians who, having detected a problem, can then reference patients to specialists. Plainly put, the project is all about early diagnosis and prevention.
“We are not replacing the specialist, we want to know which patients have a disease and make an early detection,” explains research Juan Carlos Altamirano Vallejo of the Medical and Surgical Center for Retina, as cited by Science Daily.
“It will help those that when they go to the eye doctor are already blind, we needed to go a step back, to know who is at risk and needs to go to a specialist. Not wait for a doctor,” the scientists further details.
It is understood that, having been put to the test in a series of laboratory experiments, the software will soon be officially released. Once this happens, it will be incorporated in Mexico's basic health system.
