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Cataract Screening with AI on a mobile phone : ScanMyEye App
Dr Rajeev Raut Eye Clinic Raut Eye Care

This article describes the ScanMyEye Application developed by RautEyeCare to screen for cataracts using a mobile phone

Reviewed by

Dr Bhargav Raut

Updated on May 26 • 2 mins read

What is a Cataract?

Cataract Screening at Scale : Why do we need it?

Community Health Responsiblity powered by AI

AI powered cataract screening : Overview

Step 1 : Detection of the Eye Frame

Step 2 : Classification and Grading

Results Publication : Imates Pune

Recognition

Download the App : Free on Android

Links for accessing this page

What is a Cataract?

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye. The lens is a clear structure that helps to focus light onto the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. When the lens becomes cloudy, it can cause vision problems, such as blurred vision, glare, and difficulty seeing at night.

Cataracts are very common, especially in older adults. In fact, by age 80, more than half of all Americans have cataracts. Cataracts can also be caused by certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, and by exposure to certain medications, such as steroids.

There is no cure for cataracts, but they can be treated with surgery. Cataract surgery is a safe and effective procedure that can restore clear vision.

If you are concerned about your vision, it is important to see an eye doctor. An eye doctor can diagnose cataracts and recommend the best treatment option for you.

Here are some of the symptoms of cataracts:

Blurred vision
Double vision
Glare
Difficulty seeing at night
Colors appear faded
Sensitivity to light
If you experience any of these symptoms, it is important to see an eye doctor right away. Cataracts can be a serious condition, but they are also very treatable. With early diagnosis and treatment, you can enjoy clear vision for many years to come.

Cataract Screening at Scale : Why do we need it?

Number of people who go blind from cataracts each year: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cataract is the leading cause of blindness worldwide, accounting for 47.8% of all blindness. In 2020, an estimated 38.5 million people were blind from cataracts.
If we do not have a system to screen cataract it will continue to be the leading cause of blindness.
Internet and mobile phones combined with AI are the soluiton.

Community Health Responsiblity powered by AI

We at RautEyeCare believe in our social responsiblity. We are a for-profit clinic, but our social and community responsiblity convinced us to put time, money and effort into the creation of a free and easy to use tool , to help diagnose cataract.
This led to the creation of a Deep Neural Network based approach to diagnose cataracts at scale.

AI powered cataract screening : Overview

To this end we decided to create an application that would screen patients for cataracts by simply taking a photo of the eye.

The application had to be usable on any mobile phone irrespective of the camera.

The following is a schematic of the application design:

1. The patient clicks a picture of their eye using the mobile application.

2. The photo is uploaded to a cloud based server

3. The server uses a Deep Neural Network (described below) to detect the eye and within the eye - the presence of the cataract.

4. The user receives a response in a couple of seconds.

Step 1 : Detection of the Eye Frame

The first step to assessing the image, was to successfully detect the location of the eye in the image.

Even though the application required that the user place his eye in a predefined area of the image frame, the eye could theoretically be anywhere.

We used a pretrained image recognition model, and trained it on a custom dataset of images acquried from several hundred volunteers, who were using the application in its alpha mode.

The neural network's job was to located the cornea and pupil in the image, and provide the next layer with the bounding box of this image.

Step 2 : Classification and Grading

In the second step, after some amount of preprocessing of the image inside the bounding box, another neural network was used.
The job of this neural network for purely image classification.
We used another pretrained neural network, namely Resnet and trained it on a custom dataset of several thousand images, from volunteers and patients who were enrolled in our alpha launch.
The neural network classified the images into five categories :
1) no cataract
2) Grade 1 (doubtful)
2) Grade 2 (probable)
3 ) Grade 3 (Highly likely)
4) Grade 4 (Mature Cataract)

Using the output from this neural network, the patient is provided with one of three responses :
1) You do not have a cataract
2) You should get yourself checked for a cataract
3) You have a high probability of having a cataract should get an eye checkup

Results Publication : Imates Pune

The results of our pilot project were published in the IMATES PUNE, a publication of the Indian Medical Assocation.

The results were very satisfactory with a high sensitivity but more importantly an even higher specificity.

This enables the application to be used in the field, where a true negative is far more valuable than a true positive.

This is because the same patient can be scanned again in a few months with minimal cost, but we dont erroneously call something that is not a cataract to be a cataract.

Publication link

Recognition

Our application was one of the finalists invited to the BAGIC (Bajaj Annual Innovation Summit 2022).
We previewed the application to a team of seasoned marketeers, and executives in their group and were encouraged to go further and continue working on this project.

Download the App : Free on Android

Scan My Eye is avaialable FREE OF COST, AROUND THE WORLD.

It can be downloaded at the following link :

Download Scan My Eye At the Play Store

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Article Reviewed by Dr Bhargav Raut

What people say about us

Khushboo Jain 2022-09-01

Absolutely love how understanding Dr. Kumud Raut is. The only place where I have not been told about only the process of getting a surgery, but rather they insist on educating about how the eye functions and the importance of having a healthy eye before any surgery.

Anupama Naidu 2023-02-02

This is the best eye clinic ever. It's amazing how every staff is so caring. The faculty is simply top class and Dr. Aditya Raut is the best. His treatment is par excellence, but even more than more than that, he is a great human being.

Atharva Badhade 2023-02-05

Excellent doctor! We are extremely happy and satisfied with the treatment ,the concern and friendly staff, very caring attitude of all!! Your are half cured even before the treatment starts!! The cleanliness and precautions are also upto the mark!!Recommending to all , family and friends!!

Preeti Gosavi 2023-01-10

My cataract surgery is done by Dr Rajeev Raut. I am very satisfied with my surgery. Dr. Bhargav is an excellent doctor and is very calm and polite. I was also operated for my retina by Dr. Nilesh. He too is a great doctor. I am Very satisfied. And all the staff here is very cooperative and accommodating. Thanks

Google rating score: 4.9 of 5,based on 1038 reviews

Cataract Screening with AI on a mobile phone : ScanMyEye App
Dr Rajeev Raut Eye Clinic Raut Eye Care

This article describes the ScanMyEye Application developed by RautEyeCare to screen for cataracts using a mobile phone