A new device that enables patients to non-invasively test their own intraocular pressure at home has won the international James Dyson Award.
Called the Home Eye Pressure E-Skin Sensor (Hopes), the glove was developed by Kelu Yu, Si Li and David Lee from the National University of Singapore.
Yu was inspired to create a more efficient way of testing intraocular pressure for patients when her father was diagnosed with glaucoma in 2019. ‘This personal experience motivated me to delve deeper into the disease and treatments,’ she explained.
‘At-home self-tonometry is inaccurate while the more accurate Goldmann applanation tonometry remains a clinical practice. The field of glaucoma has lagged far behind in developing a safe, accurate, low cost, at home eye pressure sensor.’
The Hopes device allowed users to test their own intraocular pressure at home by placing the fingertip of the glove on the centre of their eyelid and waiting for a notification that the test has been completed. Its designers explained that the glove’s fingertip sensor utilised a sensor that can capture dynamic pressure information from an eye with sub-millisecond precision and instantly transmit intraocular pressure data to a paired device.
The glove’s creators said they intended to bring Hopes to market after refining the product and improving its algorithm with more data.