UNMC App by Deepta Ghate is First to Show What Glaucoma Patients See

UNMC App by Deepta Ghate is First to Show What Glaucoma Patients See

Deepta Ghate, MD and associate professor in the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (www.unmc.edu/eye) at the Truhlsen Eye Institute, collaborated with students from the University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Information Science and Technology to develop an app that allowed ophthalmologists to see what their glaucoma patients see. The app was then studied on 12 glaucoma patients. In the study, participants used the app on an iPad to modify “blur” or “dimness” to match their perception of a two-by-two meter wall-mounted poster at one meter distance. They looked at various scenes and recorded what they saw. Patients could modify the scenes so ophthalmologists could see what the patient sees and compare and validate the vision of the patient.

One of the problems with glaucoma is patients don’t know they are losing their vision. Their central vision is perfect, often 20/20, but the glaucoma is continuously causing a loss of peripheral vision so slowly that, normally, it isn’t noticeable. The app can show patients they have lost vision even when they think their vision is fine. Learn more at www.unmc.edu/eye.