Categories
- Reference and Research – these apps include journal, web and literature search engines, texts and interactive data and information sites.
- Clinical Tools – these might be used either in the assessment of a patient or indeed in the diagnosis, grading or management of any specific clinical area or entity.
- Professional Guidance – this includes apps with specific information, legal or operational, that help us to carry out our role, represent a professional organisation or offer advice on medicolegal matters.
- Patient Focus – help communicate with patients, aid compliance, aid patient - practitioner interactivity.
- Educational – act as learning tools for the eye care practitioner.
- Business and commercial – management software, whether related to clinical data or financial or commercial interests, sales, marketing driven, time management aids and so on.
- Other – a catch all category for those apps worth a mention but do not fit into any single category.
Reference and Research
Name: OPO (Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics)
Price: Free (as part of membership of College of Optometrists)
I have always thought of the College of Optometrists as offering education on three tiers. At the essential level, they offer live CET at both their annual Optometry Tomorrow conference and also via a multitude of local peer to peer and ‘bitesize’ roadshow-like events. They also act as a conduit for the government-funded online CET provided by DOCET. For more involved education and CET, they produce the refereed journal Optometry in Practice which often includes review articles and overviews of topics of clinical interest.
OPO is the research journal that College members used to get through the post, and since migrated online, that contains the very latest in research and expert review. The journal is highly regarded worldwide and attracts the very cream of researchers and authors in their field.
If there ever was a criticism of OPO, it might have been that much of the content might be less than relevant to a practising optometrist and more useful to researchers (take, for example, a recent paper on ‘testing and correcting for asphericity and use of MANOVA and mixed model analysis’) and might overshadow something of extreme relevance (take ‘blue light filtering ophthalmic lenses: to prescribe, or not to prescribe’ in a subsequent issue).
Fear not – the journal is now available, free to College members, as a well-designed app (1). On first opening the app, simply click the ‘I already have access’ button (2). At the next prompt (3), click on the ‘Through my society affiliation’ tab and then use the same username and password you use for the College website.
The Home screen (4) allows instant access to ‘early view’ articles. This is always worth checking at least monthly, and can reveal some gems, such as the paper on the impact of dual focus lenses on accommodation among those papers listed at the time of writing (5).
Perhaps more usefully, it is possible to access with ease the vast archive of previously published papers. Some years back, for example, the estimable Professor Neil Charman wrote an excellent series of papers on methods of presbyopia correction – my hard copy was accidentally recycled by my beautiful wife. A simple key word search brought up the paper (6), allowed me to view figures and references individually (7), and to download the original paper as a PDF (8).
An essential and highly recommended app for anyone wishing to keep up with the latest optometric developments.
Clinical Tools
Name: Peekaboo
Price: Free
The Peekaboo app (9) has been developed by the Glasgow Centre for Ophthalmic Research and, as explained in the accompanying and downloadable user manual, is ‘an iOS application for the assessment of infant vision, which provides a visual acuity score based on the ability of a child to discern high frequency grating patterns’.
In essence, the screen displays high contrast gratings which are identified by the child and, when correctly seen, rewards the viewer with a friendly cartoon face and a loud ‘yippee!’ Setting up the test is simple (10). Acuities may be designated as Snellen, logMAR, or cycles per degree, distances in metric or old-fashioned imperial, and the noises and appearance are all adjustable as required. A slider allows calibration of the target size, and therefore acuity to be measured, as shown for example at 50cm (11) and 30cm (12).
There are three age categories. For the very young, 0 to 12 months, two target areas are displayed and a preferential looking approach is possible. For those aged 12 to 24 months, the grating appears in one of four areas (13) and again a PL approach might be used or the child is able to touch the correct target showing the grating. When correct, the green face appears (14) with a ‘yippee!’ The acuity achieved is revealed onscreen (15) and, if set to do so, announced by a very authoritative voice.
For children over two years, a more complex task is appropriate with a choice of nine target positions (16), and the position is randomly changed as the spatial frequency of the grating increases (17) and higher acuity is required. Once the child can no longer correctly identify the grating, a final score is revealed and announced (18).
Its use of a touchscreen, a friendly icon, beeps and a very vocal ‘yippee!’ when a target is correctly identified make this a very repeatable, easy to use and attractive way of assessing acuity in even the youngest patient. I also believe it has merits when used, with careful handling, in a clinic for those with severe learning difficulties. Indeed, as the designers point out, ‘The app is intended to allow health professionals to test high contrast visual acuity in infants and young children, and we envisage utility in older patient groups with special needs, who are unable to perform traditional acuity tests.’
An excellent free tool for anyone working with young children.
Patient Focus
Name: Be My Eyes
Price: Free
The Be My Eyes service is a simple app that offers valuable support to all with a visual impairment and is certainly worth making all such patients are aware of. In effect, the app allows volunteers with sight to act as a pair of eyes for someone with reduced vision on demand.
When first opening the app, you are asked whether you are blind or partially sighted so wishing to use the service, or a sighted volunteer able to offer your service (19). I registered as a volunteer, and after a minimum of data input, was ready to go. From now on, when a sight impaired user has a problem that might be solved by a second pair of eyes, a prompt will appear on my screen (20).
You always have the choice of whether to answer or decline. An introductory explanatory video shows the sort of task you may have to help with, by helping a woman wishing to wear a red jumper who cannot tell it apart from others (21). You can simply let her know which is the red one and job done.
With over 58,000 registered users and an army of nearly a million volunteers, the number of requests is minimal. However, I heartily recommend every reader to consider becoming a volunteer and help to make a difference to someone experiencing visual problems in a non-invasive and non-stigmatising way.
Patient Focus
Name: Tap Tap See
Price: Free
Another excellent tool that any of your visually impaired patients might find useful is the Tap Tap See app. This clever app uses the camera on a tablet or smartphone to capture an image of any object that someone might be struggling to identify, upload it to an extensive image library for comparison, and then download in a few seconds a description of the object.
I tried it out first on my coffee mug. I pointed the camera at the mug and tapped the screen to capture the image (22). Within seconds, the description correctly appeared onscreen (23) and can be magnified as required. If you have activated the ‘voiceover’ option in the settings menu on your tablet or smartphone, then a voice announces the description out loud (or via headphones if someone is not wishing to attract attention).
I was initially sceptical of how wide a range of objects the app might be able to identify. A green apple (24), no problem. A pack of branded cigarette papers, likewise (25). For one of my shirts hanging in the bedroom, the description was spot on (26).
An excellent tool for any sight-impaired person able to use a smartphone or tablet. Make sure your patients are aware of such free aids.