Aston University head of optometry Professor James Wolffsohn led the development of a digital health app for eye care clinicians to manage childhood myopia.
The research-based Predicting Myopia Onset and Progression Risk Indicator (PreMO) app uses a data-driven approach to myopia management, including before it occurs.
Clinicians can add and store a child’s details, including age, sex, family history, refractive error, and biometry and the app will generate individual, patient-friendly reports.
The PreMO app was developed in collaboration with researchers at Ulster University, led by optometry division head Professor Kathryn Saunders.
Research at Ulster university showed that myopia is now twice as common as it was 50 years ago and children are becoming shortsighted at a younger age.
Professor Wolffsohn said: ‘The app will support clinicians in predicting those children who will go myopic, to track their progress with myopia control treatments, to provide better communication to the child and their parents and guardians, and to personalise their eye health.’