Smartphone eye testing app Peek (Portable Eye Examination Kit) is as accurate as traditional testing charts, according to new research carried out by its developers.
Peek, designed and developed by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the University of Strathclyde and the NHS Glasgow Centre for Ophthalmic Research, consists of a series of apps and a piece of hardware called Peek Retina. The new study focused on one of the apps, Peek Acuity and how it determined how clearly an individual sees.
Published in JAMA Ophthalmology, the results showed that tests carried out on 233 people in their own homes and repeated in eye clinics based in Kenya were as reliable as those from standard paper-based charts and illuminated vision boxes in testing rooms.
Researchers said tests in patients' homes found that Peek Acuity produced results to a clinical level equivalent to the much larger and more expensive standard electricity dependent charts - the average difference being the equivalent of less than one line on an eye chart.
Tests using Peek Acuity at a distance of 2m and a reduced 3m "tumbling E" Snellen chart, were carried out in the participant's home and in the central clinic on two consecutive days.
Lead author Dr Andrew Bastawrous, lecturer in International Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and co-founder of Peek said: ‘In this study we aimed to develop and validate a smartphone-based visual acuity test for eyesight which would work in challenging circumstances, such as rural Africa, but also provide reliable enough results to use in routine clinical practice in well-established healthcare systems.'
The researchers acknowledged the fact the study only involved Kenyan adults aged 55 and over, but said that they were conducting other studies to determine the suitability of the tool in different situations across a range of different handsets and operating systems, including a trial involving teachers testing over 20,000 schoolchildren.
