In their search to find photoscreening tools that can help detect refractive amblyopia risk factors in children aged one to six years old, a team of researchers validated that an iPhone 7 app called GoCheckKids (GCK) fits the bill.

This prospective multicenter study evaluated young patients who underwent photoscreening with the GCK app over the course of 10 months.

Technicians analyzed the first acceptable quality photograph of each participant using GCK’s automated image processing algorithm to identify amblyopia risk factors. Graders then reviewed the photographs taken with the app and compared the results with the gold standard pediatric ophthalmology examinations using the 2013 American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus amblyopia risk factor guidelines.

In total, 287 patient images were analyzed. The team found that the overall manual grading results had a sensitivity and a specificity in detecting amblyopia risk factors of 76% and 85%, respectively. They note that the overall automated grading results had a sensitivity and a specificity of 65% and 83%, respectively.

Arnold RW, O’Neil JW, Cooper KL, et al. Evaluation of a smartphone photoscreening app to detect refractive amblyopia risk factors in children aged 1-6 years. August 23, 2018. [Epub ahead of print].