APPs in India: Smartphone Apps in ophthalmology

Dr. Shana Sood
Published Online: May 18th, 2020 | Read Time: 9 minutes, 13 seconds

Smartphone Applications (Apps) have entered all the spheres of our life- whether its music, food or plain old messaging. Information is now easily accessible from the palm of your hand and ophthalmology has been one of the first few medical branches to embrace this. Here are a few apps designed by Indian ophthalmologists and engineers that are changing the way we look at smartphones.

Apps for Your Clinics


Toric IOL Axis Marker

  • Developed by: Dr. Girish Jethwa and Dr. Mukesh Dholakia
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with the operating system Android 5.0 and up
  • Free
  • Click the Link

In this App, the axis of a reference blood vessel is measured after capturing an image of the patient’s eye in sitting position. This image is then again utilized during the surgery, to help in the correct orientation of the Toric IOL Marker and to mark the IOL axis in reference to- this blood vessel. This avoids misalignment of Toric IOL due to cyclotorsion of the globe in lying down position.

iToric Patwardhan

  • Developed by: Dr. Sourabh D Patwardhan
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with the operating system Android 4.0 and up
  • Free
  • Click the link

This App is used for accurate implantation of the Toric IOL along its axis. The axis is first marked manually on the patient’s eye in the sitting position and an image is captured (with camera flash on- in portrait mode). After feeding the desired axis manually, the App confirms the manual marking and corrects it after accounting for on-table cyclotorsion.

Eye know Tamil, Eye know Bangla

  • Developed by: Dr. John Davis Akkara, Dr. Anju Kuriakose, Dr. Devika Bhattacharya, Dr. Rashmita Ravishankar, Dr. Shiweobi Jude
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with the operating system Android 4.0 and up
  • Free
  • Click the Link

Language barriers can be a major disadvantage in doctor-patient interaction especially those who are posted in Southern India for fellowship or training purposes. These two Apps help familiarise clinicians with common ophthalmic complaints and symptoms in the respective regional languages.

Apps for patients


DIGNIFY

  • Developed by: Aravind Eye Hospital and The Mindtree foundation
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with the operating system Android 4.0 and up, DIGNIFY hardware platform
  • Cost: App is free, Dignify Gantry
  • Click the link

This allows visually impaired patients to read regular textbooks without conversion to braille. The App utilizes a smartphone mounted on a fixture/gantry to capture images of pages of text and then converts it to audio format and sends it to the headset/headphones of the patient.

VIKAS (Visual Intervention Kit with Analytics for Special children)

  • Developed by: Aravind Eye Hospital and The Mindtree foundation
  • Requirement for installation: Tablet-Screen size 7 inches and above (Android 5.0 and up)
  • Cost: Free
  • Click the link

This App is a series of visual exercises to help develop cognitive visual function in children with special needs such as those with Autism and Cerebral Palsy. They focus on various visual properties such as memory, spatial function, motion perception and can be performed as visual physiotherapy.

ROSHNI - Currency recognizer

  • Developed by: IPSA Labs, IIT Ropar
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with Android operating system 6.0
  • Click the link

This is an auto audio teller for the denomination of Indian currency, designed especially for visually impaired patients. It works well with both -old and new notes.

Apps for medical records

OgleCam

  • Developed by: Dr. Suneel J Meharwade
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with Android operating system 5.0 and up
  • Free
  • Click the link

This is a teleophthalmology consultation platform that allows maintenance of patient’s electronic medical records along with storage of clinical anterior segment and fundus images. It allows smart referral from one doctor to another and organized review / on-screen reporting time.

Teaching Apps

Ophthalmology by Dr. Vineet Sehgal

  • Developed by: Dr. Vineet Sehgal
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with Android operating system 4.4 and up
  • Cost : 1350/-
  • Click the link

This is a series of lectures in ophthalmology covering basics on important topics like Diabetic retinopathy, Retinopathy of prematurity, etc. and is especially helpful for the orientation of new postgraduate students to the subject. Purchasing the App gives you access to a dedicated WhatsApp group where MCQs are posted daily to engage the members and keep them interested in the process of learning.

Eye Grader

  • Developed by: Dr. John Davis Akkara
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone
  • Free
  • Click the link

This is a ready reckoner for postgraduate students and is focussed on scientific classifications of various diseases of the eye. For eg. SUN (Standard Uveitis Nomenclature) grading in uveitis and RP (Rajendra Prasad, AIIMS) center grading of Gonioscopy.

iDoctor JD

  • Developed by: Dr. John Davis Akkara Dr. Anju Kuriakose
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with Android operating system 2.3 and up, 3D Anaglyph glasses
  • Free
  • Click the link

Initially designed for eye tests like visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and color vision, this App also has a few 3D clinical images.

3D Atlas of Ophthalmology

  • Developed by: Dr. John Davis Akkara
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with Android operating system,3D Anaglyph glasses OR VR Headset
  • Free
  • Click the link

This App is specially dedicated to 3D and stereoscopic images in clinical ophthalmology and surgical procedures. Just don a pair of 3D glasses or a VR headset and enjoy the experience. Make sure you have an eyetube account for the videos section.

Imaging Apps

MII Retcam-Pro

  • Developed by: Dr. Ashish Sharma
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with android operating system 4.4 and up), 20D lens, MII Retcam
  • Cost: App is free, MII Retcam device- 23,999/-
  • Click the link

The MII Retcam device is a slit lamp mounted device which in combination with 20 D lens captures dilated fundus images. The App helps in maintaining the electronic records of the patient along with documentation of the fundus images, which are converted in a ready to print PDF format.

HopeScope

  • Developed by: Dr. Biju Raju
  • Requirement for installation: Smartphone with android operating system 5.0 and up, 20D, HopeScope device
  • Cost: App is free, HopeScope device; Price on request at hopescoperetcam@gmail.com
  • Click the link

The HopeScope is a slit lamp mountable retinal imaging device, which captures dilated fundus photos with a 20 D lens. The App generates corrected fundus images (after inversion) and allows maintenance of patient’s records along with documentation.

That’s all for now.But, if you have designed a new App - for clinicians, patients, electronic medical records, a device, or teaching - we would love to hear from you and add it to our list. Please do mail us at shanasood14@gmail.com.

Dr. Shana loves teaching and has a website dedicated to typical spotters on scans and investigations in ophthalmology for residents and fellowsspotifeyestudygroup.com . -(ASOCT, OCT Macula, B scan, Pentacam, Fields and much more)-

Dr. Shana Sood
Dr. Shana Sood is a cornea and refractive senior fellow at Dr. Agarwals eye hospital. She has completed her MBBS with a gold medal & DNB with the Jaiveer Agarwal gold medal, FICO (Adv) and MRCS (Edin). She did her Advanced cataract fellowship from Sankara Nethralaya and has spoken and presented in various conferences.
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