The Artificial Intelligence-based app named E-Paarvai allows healthcare workers (HCWs) to identify cataracts on the spot with 91% accuracy.
Untreated cataracts are one of the primary reasons for blindness in Tamil Nadu, which currently has 22,700 registered cataract patients, according to National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCBVI) data.
Usually, eye hospitals conduct screening camps during weekends to identify cataract patients and later bring them to hospitals for surgeries. But this practice came to halt for almost a year due to Covid-induced lockdown.
V Thangavelu, President of Tamil Nadu Ophthalmologists Association (TNOA), said that his hospital was screening at least 200 people in rural Coimbatore every week, but it dropped to 20 now. “So, there is a significant backlog of patients, waiting for cataract surgeries” he said.
Against this backdrop, TNeGA’s E-Paarvai app, launched earlier this year, is making screening easier for state-run hospitals.
Low doctor-patient ratio is one the main reasons why hospitals are unable to send doctors for field visits or screening camps in remote areas.
“So, we have designed the app in such a way that government HCWs can screen patients for cataract with minimal training,” Priyanjit Ghosh of TNeGA.
The app, which is available in Google Play Store, is installed in healthcare workers’ smartphones. On opening the app, HCWs enter the patient details, click photos or both the eyes and submit it.
The AI-system will process images and confirm whether a person has mature, immature or no cataract, Ghosh added.
Depending on the progression rate, the Tamil Nadu State Blindness Control Society (TNSBCS) staff take patients to respective district headquarter hospitals for surgeries in government vans. They are dropped back home after recovery.
“This app is definitely going to revolutionise the cataract screening scenario,” said Dr Thangavelu from TNOA.
TNSBCS has so far screened up to 1,400 people in 14 districts including Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Dharmapuri using E-Paarvai during the pilot phase. It will soon be expanded to other districts.