This article was taken from the September 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Half of all those who go blind could avoid it,claims London-based eye surgeon Andrew Bastawrous (pictured). "One of the biggest causes of blindness is cataracts, and the surgery to treat it takes ten minutes to complete and costs £6," he says. But many in developing countries don't have access to diagnostic tools. His solution: the Portable Eye Examination Kit, or Peek -- an app that uses the camera in a smartphone to carry out vision tests.
In 2007, Bastawrous, a PhD student at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, initiated a study of eye disease in Nakuru County in Kenya, which involved setting up 100 clinics with over £100,000 worth of high-tech equipment for 5,000 people. "Logistically, it was a nightmare," says Bastawrous. "Two-thirds of the place didn't have road access and another two-thirds didn't have electricity. We were effectively taking fragile, expensive equipment to places where it doesn't belong. I thought that there had to be a better way."
So he came up withPeek.It comes with a 3D-printed clip-on adapter that uses the camera's flash to scan inside the eye and diagnose disease within 30 seconds. "We've got a direct comparison of someone using Peekversus a team led by a UK-trained doctor with the best equipment money can buy," says Bastawrous. "It's David versus Goliath, and our data suggests David did pretty well." He's planning trials in five countries over the next five years, culminating in an effort to find and map every blind person in Botswana. "If I show you a map with the location of 100,000 blind people on it, we'll feel compelled to do something," says Bastawrous. "It's data you can no longer ignore."
Peek's software is free and Bastawrous is planning to make it open source in the near future. "Our prime ambition is not to develop a company that's hugely profitable," he says. "Our ambition is to eradicate blindness."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
