Improving access to vision correction for health disparity populations with the QuickSee: an accurate, low-cost, easy-to-use objective refractor

Summary The principal goal of this proposal is to increase the accuracy and precision of a low cost autorefraction device called the QuickSeein order to improve access to refractive eye care for underserved populationsPoor vision due to a lack of eyeglasses is highly prevalent in low resource settings throughout the world and significantly reduces quality of lifeeducationand productivityThe existing QuickSee only extracts the lowerorder aberration information contained within a wavefront profile of the eyeto roughly estimate an eyeglass prescriptionThis proposal will further improve the accuracy of the QuickSee device by exploiting both the lowerand higher order aberrations contained within the complete wavefrontTo realize this goalwe will enrollsubjectseyesin BaltimoreMDand will obtain subjective refraction and visual acuityVAmeasurements and will use machine learning on this large dataset of wavefront profiles to optimize the wavefront to refraction algorithm of the QuickSee deviceThe main output of this project will be a robust and improved accuracy next generation QuickSee device that will increase efficiency of and decrease the training requirements of eye care professionalsand potentially dispense refractive correction that provides similar or better VA than correction from an eye care professionalSuccessful completion of this work will be an important step towards dramatically improving eyeglass accessibility for health disparity populations in the USA and internationally in low resource settingsUpon completion of this proposalwe will apply for a Phase II award proposing to work with Wilmer Eye Institute research faculty to assess widespread deployment of the next generation QuickSee with minimally trained personnel in order to accurately and reliably provide thousands of pairs of low cost corrective eyeglasses to underserved communities Project Narrative This project proposal seeks to develop a novel technology that will disruptively increase the accessibility of refractive eye care for health disparity populations in low resource settingsSpecificallysophisticated algorithms will be developed that improve the accuracy of the QuickSee device so that it can improve the efficiency of and reduce the training barriers for eye care professionalsand potentially provide refractive correction without the need for refinement by a trained eye care professionalOur goal is to develop a lowcosteasy to usescalable solution to increase accessibility to vision correction globally