Smartphone eye examination app Peek Retina goes for crowdfunding
Indiegogo appeal to raise extra funds for Peek to be manufactured and delivered globally
The team behind Peek, the Portable Eye Examination Kit, are calling on the public to help provide a solution to avoidable blindness by increasing access to potentially life-changing new eye health testing equipment.
Peek, which was part-funded by Fight for Sight, consists of smartphone apps and an adapter which can be used by health workers anywhere in the world to test eyes easily and affordably in the community. This is especially important as millions of people around the world are not able to get to clinics or hospitals to seek help.
Their latest creation is called Peek Retina, a smartphone adapter engineered at the University of Strathclyde and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which clips over the phone’s camera and enables health workers to see inside the eye, save the photos and then send them to experts for diagnosis and subsequent treatment. Many eye diseases and other health problems, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, can be detected with a good view of the retina.
Buy Peek Retina or pledge funds online
Crowdfunding site Indiegogo is now offering a way of raising additional funding to enable manufacture and delivery of Peek tools on a global scale to the people who need it most. People can go to www.supportpeek.com and buy Peek Retina for their own use, or pledge funds to enable the adapter to be manufactured and distributed to suitable low-income settings.
Dr Bastawrous, who is a Clinical Lecturer and ophthalmologist within the International Centre for Eye Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “With Peek we are hoping to increase the access to eye care to the millions of people who are blind and shouldn’t be. For this to be a success we need to find a sustainable way of sharing the technology as far and wide as possible.
“There are so many hard-working and excellent eye care workers in hospitals and charities worldwide and one of the greatest challenges they face is getting expertise and diagnostic tools to remote locations – we hope Peek will support their efforts to alleviate unnecessary sight loss.”