iPhone is 'Eye-phone' for surgeons in India
EE Times - November 20, 2009

BANGALORE — Apple's iPhone may well be nicknamed "Eye-Phone" among pediatric eye surgeons starting off on a global endeavor to prevent an eye disease that affects thousands of prematurely born infants and can cause blindness if not swiftly treated.

It's not a feature Steve Jobs -- much less anyone -- could have envisioned, but pediatric eye (retina) surgeons in India and elsewhere say that when using tele-opthalmology to cure a disease called Retinopathy of Prematurity (RoP), they find the iPhone to be the best platform from both a security and features perspective.

"Some babies born underweight are likely to be affected by RoP, which though curable, must be acted upon in a matter of days to prevent irreversible blindness.

This is especially a problem in countries such as India and those of a similar socio-economic nature, where lack of adequate facilities, long distances, illiteracy and low accessibility to quality healthcare cause thousands of children to become blind every year," said Anand Vinekar, project coordinator and pediatric retinal surgeon at Narayana Nethralaya, an opthalmological institute based here.

Laboratory assistants take pictures of the retinas of prematurely born babies and transmit them via broadband to pediatric eye surgeons, who could be hundreds or thousands of miles away.

These surgeons, using iPhones, enlarge the images and using the iPhone's graphics capabilities determine whether the baby needs immediate help.

Need for a standard platform

"We wanted a standard platform and the iPhone proved to be the best. With other (GSM) handsets you find that different models have different features. With a Nokia for instance, you have many models which do or do not have all the features we need. So it was easy to standardize on the iPhone," Vinekar said.

The iPhone's large screen, resolution, graphics capabilities and features offered the good picture quality doctors require, and security in the form of easy-to-publish Adobe software -- which also helps to upload patient records immediately and securely, Vinekar said.

In addition to the graphics processing capabilities that the chip industry has provided through the iPhone, it is chipping in with the software used in treating RoP. This comes from i2i Telesolutions, a startup launched by an ex-Texas Instruments India executive, Sham Banerji. Banerji led the team that developed the first DSP in India while at TI in Bangalore.

"The iPhone's pinch-and-drag capabilities, apart from its amazing resolution, are unrivaled in other phone models and the surgeons therefore decided that this is best-suited for this kind of application," Banerji said.
In India alone, thousands of children go blind every year. These numbers could fall as a result of efforts by Vinekar and others like him, along with the help of the government.

Currently, Vinekar, with surgeons such as Anna Ills of Calgary, Canada, are joining with regional governments and non-governmental bodies to use the broadband and the iPhone to fight blindness in newborns everywhere in the world.

iPhone app for the eyes
Deccan Chronicle - November 20, 2009

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Narayana Nethralaya Pilots Breakthrough Telemedicine on iPhone in Quest to End
Blindness in Children

iPhone now truly an EYE-Phone

BANGALORE (November, 19th. 2009) Narayana Nethralaya Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology, Bangalore which has been involved in pediatric community eye outreach programs for over 25 years has helped evolve a unique tele-medicine software which allows screening of rural and semi-urban infants for a potentially blinding condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity along with other common conditions including ocular cancers.

The institute has helped provide the access of this software on the iPhone. The development is said to have large consequences in reducing the blindness burden of the country.

“Retinopathy of prematurity is the leading cause of preventable infant blindness worldwide. In India, over 8% of 27 million births each year are at risk of this potentially blinding condition. Roughly if 100 ‘at-risk’ infants are screened, 15-20% may require treatment that can prevent blindness. This requires a fast and efficient system of screening infants especially in the peripheral rural areas where expertise is lacking”, said Dr Anand Vinekar, Project Co-Ordinator & Pediatric Retinal Surgeon, Narayana Nethralaya, Bangalore. “Since we began 2 years ago in 7 districts of Karnataka, we have successfully treated over 150 infants and screened over 1500, but we used the ‘store and forward’ technology that was slow and did not solve security and storage issues.” Dr Vinekar remarked.

“With the experience of over 56,000 images of infant retinas in our database, we required a dedicated web-based software with progressive viewing to speedily allow access to our experts at the base hospital. This quest lead to the development of this new technology” said Dr Bhujang Shetty, Chairman of Narayana Nethralaya.

"There isn’t anything more rewarding than seeing the anxious look of a mother with a new born at risk of blindness and giving her reassurance that the best care is only a click away on a doctors iPhone" said Sham Banerji, CEO of i2iTeleSolutions, the collaborating software partner. "The i2i team is proud that our CARE TeleOphthalmology software connects ROP specialists to pre mature infants in the farthest corners of India”, said Mr Banerji,

The i2i Teleopthalmology Application running on Apple’s iphone ushers in a new era of telemedicine letting doctors see amazingly clear images of the retina and report findings anywhere, anytime, realtime. The new pilot will run for 36 months at which time we expect TeleROP to be deployed on a much broader scale across the country and soon in other countries linking them in this unique way.

i2i TeleSolutions Customer wins prestigious Government Award

Swami Vivekananda Integrated Rural Health Centre / Shree Sharadadevi Eye Hospital & Research Centre, Pavagada has bagged best institution state award by the Government of Karnataka for the year 2009. The award will be presented on the occasion of Children’s Day celebrations which will take place at Balbhavan, Cubbon Park, Bangalore on the 14th November 2009. The award is being given for the institution for its service especially to the most neglected children of this border area of Andhra & Karnataka State (the Award consisting of rupees one lakh cash and a citation). The institution has taken up several innovative programmes like Pediatric Ophthal project, Pediatric Tuberculosis project, Pediatric Leprosy project and the institution also working for all the children of below 15 years for their cardiac problems under pediatric heart diseases. The institution is working with the collaboration of Dr.Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya where all the pediatric cardiac patients have been treated and had been undergone open heart surgeries free of cost. The Pediatric ophthal programmes like care, treatment and surgeries are being undertaken up with the help of Dr.Bhujanga Shetty of Narayana Nethralaya. The pediatric Tuberculosis and Leprosy project are being run by the institution for the past two decades. The Hon’ble Government has selected this institution for this prestigious award which will be presented by the Hon’ble Governor on the 14th November. As on today nearly 61 children have been treated for their cardiac problems which include surgeries from this area alone. According to the records nearly 1,05,000 children have been screened for their health problems and 57 kids have undergone eye surgery under general anesthesia at our hospital itself.