New iPhone vision test tracks your eye health

Patients suffering from eye problems may have a new tool at their fingertips: an iPhone-enabled vision test to keep tabs on their condition at home.

myVisionTrack-iPhone-app-Photo-AFP

Patients suffering from eye problems may have a new tool at their fingertips: an iPhone-enabled vision test to keep tabs on their condition at home.

The US Food and Drug Administration just approved the software, myVisionTrack, developed by Vital Art and Science, and the company has it sights set on gaining European approval as well.

The app is targeted at patients with retinal diseases and eye conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration.

At home, patients can check both eyes using a simple visual test on the app, which then tracks changes and automatically sends an alert to a physician when it detects a significant change.

'Today our test is only approved on the iPhone 4S and not everyone has this phone, and so in initial use we expect to supply the app on a smartphone which is provided directly to the user,' Vital Art and Science president Mike Bartlett tells Relaxnews. 'Longer term we certainly expect to have our app run on any smartphone, but that will take a lot more work.'