DIY eye checks …on phone app

A ‘DIGITAL optician’ used at home can spot common eye conditions that could cause blindness.

Millions of Britons suffer conditions such as diabetes and macular degeneration that affect the macula – part of the retina which sends signals to the brain and, if damaged, leads to blindness.

Patients need monitoring every few weeks at hospital. But now experts at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London are trialling a smartphone app, called Home Vision Monitor, which allows patients to do DIY sight checks. The twice-weekly tests involve identifying one shape out of dozens that is slightly different. Picking the wrong one repeatedly could mean vision is declining – and preventive action can be taken. ‘This will improve patient outcomes,’ says Konstantinos Balaskas, ophthalmic surgeon at Moorfields.