JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Glaucoma, the “silent thief of sight”, is a major cause of blindness worldwide. It is a burden for people in low-income countries specifically, where it accounts for 15% of the total blindness. More than half of the people living with glaucoma in low-income countries, are unaware of their disease until it progresses to an advanced stage, resulting in permanent visual impairment.

Objective:

To evaluate the acceptability of the Glaucoma Easy Screener (GES), a low-cost and portable visual field screening platform comprising of a smartphone, a stereoscopic VR headset and a gaming joystick.

Methods:

A mixed-method study was conducted to evaluate the acceptability of GES, including 24 eye care professionals from four hospitals in Southwest Ethiopia. A pre-post design was employed to collect perspectives before and after using GES, using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire and interview questions were guided by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT).

Results:

Positive results were obtained both pre-use and post-use, suggesting acceptance of mHealth solutions for glaucoma screening, using a low-cost headset through a smartphone and a game controller. Ophthalmic professionals perceived GES as easy-to-use, enabling the screening of glaucoma screening tests, especially during outreach to rural areas. However, positive evaluations are contingent on adequate accuracy of the tool. Moroever, ophtalmic professionals voiced the need to limit the tool to screening only, and not for diagnosis.

Conclusions:

The study supports the feasibility of using a mobile device in combination with a low-cost VR headset and classic controller for glaucoma screening in rural areas. GES has the potential to reduce the burden of irreversible blindness due to glaucoma. Yet, a further assessment of its sensitivity and specificity is needed.