A.I Vs M.D: Smartphone Apps Over Conventional Therapy For Amblyopia Treatment?

The purpose of this study was to review apps for amblyopia that are available, assess the involvement of eye care professionals in their development and establish their utility as a treatment modality, in comparison to the traditional method of occlusion.

Tertiary care centre 

A total of 100 patients attending the amblyopia clinic in a tertiary care centre were reviewed and followed up over a period of 1 year.

55% used the traditional method of occlusion (Group A), 25% used only apps (Group B)  and 45% used both ( Group C). Most of the apps being used by the children were available in Android and iOS under medical category (80%). Majority of the games were to be played binocularly either using red-green goggles or a virtual reality set. Only 10% of the games had documented the involvement of eye care professionals during game development. 83% of Group A patients showed improvement of 2 snellens line of visual acquity within 3 months of follow up (P value 0.01), which was 50% in Group B (P value 0.5) and 92 % in Group C (P value 0.02).

Effective treatment of amblyopia is imperative to reduce morbidity and prevent blindness. Most of the currently available games don’t have eye-care professional input, hence their role in treatment of amblyopia as a sole method is yet to be established. However, it might be a useful adjunct to occlusion therapy for improving compliance as well as visual acquity or in patients who are not compliant with it.