Girl invents 3D printing eye test to help prevent blindness in diabetics, inspired by grandfather

The 3D printing frame and lens can help detect signs of degenerative eye disease and works with an AI smartphone app.

Kavya started this project when her grandfather began exhibiting symptoms of diabetic retinopathy in his eye. Her aim is to create a test that is a cheaper, and a more accessible eye care alternative for patients with diabetes.

“The lack of diagnosis is the biggest challenge. In India, there are programs that send doctors into villages and slums, but there are a lot of patients and only so many ophthalmologists”, she explained.

The 3D printing device works with the smartphone. It consists of a frame designed to fit comfortably on the back of the phone. It uses a lens to focus the light from the smartphone’s camera’s flash (just like the eye-doctor’s pen torch) which illuminates the retina. Then a picture is taken and it is analyzed through the Eyeagnosis app. This app was designed by the student so that it uses image data from the NIH National Eye Institute’s eyeGENE database to help with the diagnosis.

The innovation was tested by Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital, in Mumbai, that proved the device is able to diagnose with the accuracy of a human ophthalmologist. But it still requires more testing.

Five patients have already been accurately diagnosed using the Eyeagnosis device.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2vznC6H
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B_zhnMuE-4