Bill Harvey: Apps to help eye health

The availability of apps that are concerned with vision and eye health is a great help in practice. As we try to reflect in our quarterly series on such apps and software, there are many that are invaluable as teaching aids, in helping patients understand concepts (you really should try the Holden myopia calculator if you have yet to), in patient assessment (useful in testing children), train the patient, such as encouraging blinking or exercising ocular muscles, or simply as an aid to vision. There are many excellent low vision aids developed as apps.

A recent publication from the USA has poured some cold water on this enthusiasm for apps. The Google play store and the Apple iTunes store were searched in July 2017 for amblyopia games using the terms amblyopia, lazy eye, amblyopia therapy, lazy eye therapy, lazy eye exercises, amblyopia exercises, lazy eye games, and amblyopia games. General ophthalmology or optometry apps and apps in languages other than English were excluded.