Smartphone eye checks for front-of-eye conditions in rural India
Smartphone-based community screening for eye disease in rural India
A smartphone tool that helps community health workers spot and refer common eye problems affecting the front of the eye for people living in rural India.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Johns Hopkins University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Baltimore, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11169774 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would be screened by a trained community health worker using a smartphone-based camera and software that images the front part of the eye. The team will build and improve the device with repeated testing, train local workers to use it, and develop automated algorithms to flag cataract, corneal disease, and other anterior eye conditions. Positive screens would trigger a referral pathway to local eye clinics or eye camps for confirmatory care. The project focuses on practical, low-cost tools and workflows that can work in remote, low-resource settings.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are people in rural Indian communities who have vision complaints, visible eye problems, or who have not had a recent eye exam and are willing to be seen by a community health worker.
Not a fit: People with diseases of the back of the eye (retina or optic nerve) or those already receiving specialist care are unlikely to benefit from this front-of-eye screening tool.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could find treatable causes of vision loss earlier and increase referrals so fewer people lose vision from common anterior eye conditions.
How similar studies have performed: Smartphone imaging and AI have worked well for some eye screening tasks like diabetic retinopathy, but applying and validating this approach for anterior eye diseases in rural low-resource settings is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
Baltimore, United States
- Johns Hopkins University — Baltimore, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Shekhawat, Nakul — Johns Hopkins University
- Study coordinator: Shekhawat, Nakul
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.