Goh Caius, Puah Marilyn, Toh Zhi Hong, Boon Joewee, Boey Debbie, Tay Ryan, Sule Ashita A, Liu Renee, Ong Xing-Er, Kalra Aditya, Gupta Satvik, Rousselot Andres, Rojas-Carabali William, Ang Bryan, Agrawal Rupesh
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
National Healthcare Group Eye Institute, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, 308433, Singapore.
Ophthalmol Ther. 2025 Jan;14(1):23-39. doi: 10.1007/s40123-024-01071-1. Epub 2024 Nov 22.
With technological advancements and the growing prevalence of smartphones, ophthalmology has opportunely harnessed medical technology for visual function assessment as a home monitoring tool for patients. Ophthalmology applications that offer these have likewise become more readily available in recent years, which may be used for early detection and monitoring of eye conditions. To date, no review has been done to evaluate and compare the utility of these apps. This review provides an updated overview of visual functions assessment using mobile applications available on the Apple App and Google Play Stores, enabling eye care professionals to make informed selections of their use in ophthalmology.
We reviewed 160 visual function applications available on Apple iTunes and the Google Play Stores. The parameters surveyed included types of visual function tests, the involvement of healthcare professionals in their development, cost, and download count.
Visual tests, including visual acuity and color vision tests, were most common among apps surveyed, and they were comparable to traditional clinical methods. Certain applications were more widely used, some of which have had studies conducted to assess the reliability of test results. Limitations of these apps include the absence of healthcare professionals' involvement in their development, the lack of approval by regulatory authorities and minimal cloud-based features to communicate results to healthcare professionals.
The prevalence and easy access of visual function testing applications present opportunities to enhance teleophthalmology through early detection and monitoring of eye conditions. Future development to enhance the quality of the apps should involve regulatory bodies and medical professionals, followed up by research using larger samples with longer follow-up studies to review the reliability and validity of ophthalmology applications. This would potentially enable these applications to be incorporated into the comprehensive assessment and follow-up care of patients' eye health.
随着技术进步以及智能手机的日益普及，眼科适时地利用医疗技术进行视觉功能评估，将其作为患者的家庭监测工具。近年来，提供此类功能的眼科应用也变得更加容易获取，可用于眼部疾病的早期检测和监测。迄今为止，尚未有综述对这些应用程序的效用进行评估和比较。本综述提供了使用苹果应用商店和谷歌应用商店中可用的移动应用程序进行视觉功能评估的最新概述，使眼保健专业人员能够在眼科领域明智地选择使用这些应用程序。
我们审查了苹果iTunes和谷歌应用商店上的160个视觉功能应用程序。调查的参数包括视觉功能测试类型、医疗保健专业人员在其开发过程中的参与情况、成本和下载量。
在所调查的应用程序中，视力和色觉测试等视觉测试最为常见，并且与传统临床方法相当。某些应用程序使用更为广泛，其中一些已经进行了研究以评估测试结果的可靠性。这些应用程序的局限性包括缺乏医疗保健专业人员参与其开发、未获得监管机构批准以及用于向医疗保健专业人员传达结果的基于云的功能极少。
视觉功能测试应用程序的普及和易于获取为通过眼部疾病的早期检测和监测来加强远程眼科提供了机会。未来提高应用程序质量的发展应涉及监管机构和医学专业人员，随后进行使用更大样本和更长随访研究的研究，以审查眼科应用程序的可靠性和有效性。这可能会使这些应用程序能够纳入患者眼部健康的综合评估和后续护理中。
