Open Platform to Detect and Monitor Macular Disorders

Macular disorders (MDs) such as Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Central Serous Retinopathy (CSR) cause Visual Distortions (VDs) while affecting human vision and the quality of life. Home-monitoring helps with disorder early detection and possibly slow down or even progress prevention while reducing the risk of vision loss and medical management costs. We addressed the challenge of developing accurate, rapid, and low-cost home monitoring technology for the detection and progress assessment of MDs. The proposed methods allow the detection of small VDs using a novel approach called NGRID. The proposed NGRID platform is a unified software and hardware system that assist eye-care professionals in running the visual tests from hospitals or remotely at patients' home. Advanced programming techniques such as Standard Vector Graphic (SVG) and voice recognition were used to develop the required software. The high security, capacity, and availability of the computer cluster running NGRID enable the access of millions of people to run the test and assess the progress of their MDs at home. NGRID sends the results to the medical practitioner to better manage the patients. We tested CSR patients using NGRID. The patients were asked to answer if they see the VD test frames wavy or with missing parts. Patient's voice is processed to extract the answers and detect metamorphopsia or scotoma, and results displayed in a graph called heatmap, which visually shows how the visual field is affected. Furthermore, we successfully verified the heatmaps with patients' Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images, which is the golden standard methodology for MD diagnostic. We confirmed the location of the detected VDs with the patients once they gain normal vision. The proposed NGRID research platform can offer significant advantages for home monitoring and subsequently, control of MDs. NGRID opened new avenues towards the generation of first MD big data suitable for medical industries. Finally, NGRID aims to offer medical practitioners better ways to monitor patients at home, where using OCT is not possible. Clinical trials for NGRID on other MDs such as AMD may allow medical practitioners for faster intervention when Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (Anti-VEGF) is needed