Our Mission
Our mission is to leverage smartphone camera technology to provide a new app-based screening method for jaundice.
A smartphone-based screening method would offer several advantages over existing methods. Like transcutaneous bilirubinometers (TcBs), they are objective, portable, non-invasive, and offer a result at the point-of-care. However, they are an order of magnitude cheaper than TcBs. They are also more accessible, as smartphones are becoming ubiquitous in even the most resource-poor settings. Finally, TcBs are contact-based, which increases the risk of spreading infection or the need for disposables, while digital photography can be completely contact-free.
Our App
Features
Affordable
Our app is a low cost solution, making it ideal for low and middle-income countries.
Accessible
Avoiding the need for specialist screening devices, our app enables visiting midwives and parents to screen for jaundice at the point of care.
Non-Invasive
Our app does not require any physical contact between the baby and the device, meaning that no consumables or sterilisations are needed, thereby reducing risk of infections.
Objective
Unlike visual detection, our method does not rely on human perception. Our app relates a quantitative measure of sclera colour to a bilirubin level.
The benefits of such a technique would be felt more keenly in Low and Middle-income Countries (LMICs). In LMICs, lab results can be unreliable or slow to arrive, which may delay time-critical treatment. In this situation, clinicians may err on the side of caution and recommend phototherapy. Unnecessary phototherapy can cause dehydration and, when phototherapy units are in short supply, block access to treatment for other neonates [1].
How it Works
We aim to make our app as user friendly as possible. It does not depend on internet connectivity to function.
OUR APP WILL
- Calculate 'yellowness' of eyes
- Derive predicted bilirubin level
- Assist doctors, nurses and midwives in making clinical decisions
The sclera is imaged because it is free from the confounding influence of melanin and hemoglobin. The sclera readily accumulates bilirubin because of its elastin content (elastin has a high affinity for bilirubin [2]). This means that the yellow discolouration is more discernable in the eye, making it an ideal place to make a screening measurement.
Recently, smartphone camera capability has increased dramatically. Our app accesses the camera’s sensor data and uses image processing algorithms to quantify the colour of the sclera accurately and objectively. The bilirubin concentration is then inferred from that colour.
The main challenges that we face include making the app device-independent so that it can work on any model of phone, and discounting the effect of ambient light, which would otherwise change the colour measured. We are making progress to overcome these challenges and will be publishing the results soon!
Clinical Studies in Ghana
To develop a user-friendly and reliable app, we needed feedback from local healthcare workers, as well as neonate data.
Year 1 - Greater Accra Regional Hospital
Year 2 - Field Testing in Rural Communities and an Urban Hospital in Ghana
Testing
Our App is being tested both in the lab and in the field. Not only are we continuously developing and testing our app, but we are also collecting more data in order to ensure accurate and reliable jaundice screening results.
