Two University of Toronto medical students will use a $50,000 prize to explore the potential to bring a new type of eye examination tool to patients in Ontario.
Mohan Pandit and Jeff Martin are the winners of this year’s Richard Ivey Reverse Innovation Challenge, which took place in late November. With the new funding, they will begin a local pilot test for the device, called a 3nethra, and train a small number of doctors to use it.
The 3nethra, developed by Indian health technology firm Forus, lets clinicians easily examine the back of the eye. Pandit and Martin expect it will enable doctors to find earlier signs of two of the leading, treatable causes of blindness in Canada — diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma — as well as cataracts, corneal disease and refractive error.
The device is portable, easy to use and costs just $15, 000.
“This technology could be used on anybody who comes into a family doctor’s office, or another facility housing the device,” says Martin. “It’s meant as a pre-screening tool, to pick up an eye disease before we have objective blood tests or symptoms of the disease.”
The current testing method requires an ophthalmoscope, and although many family doctor’s offices have one, the device can be difficult to use and lacks sensitivity.
A 1996 study in the British Medical Journal found the sensitivity of detecting background diabetic retinopathy in general medical practice to be as low as 22 per cent. And a 1998 study published in Milbank Quarterly revealed that just 49 per cent of diabetic patients are screened by their primary care doctor for retinopathy.
Pandit and Martin believe that if the 3nethra can help Ontario’s family health care practitioners find earlier signs of eye disease, it will mean better outcomes for patients, fewer referrals to specialists and significant cost savings for the Canadian health care system.
The 3nethra could also make the screening process more comfortable for patients, because it does not require pupil dilation.
“If you’ve ever had your eyes dilated for an eye exam, after you leave, everything is bright for up to two hours. Sometimes people get headaches, they avoid the tests because they don’t want to be temporarily unable to read or drive,” says Pandit.
A patient sits in front of the 3nethra’s camera, with the operator on the other side of the device. The operator takes a photo of the back of the eye, and the machine analyzes the data in the picture and generates a report. A doctor can go over the report with the patient, and plan a course of action if necessary.
Forus has even developed infrastructure to store the photo and data online.
“If you picture one of the early Mac computers with the screen in front, it’s a stand-alone, all in one device. That’s essentially what the 3nethra is,” explains Martin. “It’s an ophthalmoscope with a camera and a computer assisted diagnosis device.”
Pandit and Martin are now recruiting family doctors, ophthalmologists and optometrists to take part in the pilot test.
