Researchers at the Medical and Surgical Center for Retina developed software that detects eye diseases such as diabetic macular edema using a smartphone. The system is aimed at general physicians who could detect the condition and refer the patient to a specialist.

Developed in collaboration with biomedical engineers from the ITESM, the system uses the camera of the phone to detect any abnormality in the thickness of the retina.

Using the software promises to reduce costs and streamline the Mexican health system.“The idea is to detect and prevent diseases in general practice,” says Dr. Juan Carlos Altamirano Vallejo, medical director of the Medical and Surgical Center for Retina. “We are not replacing the specialist, we want to know which patients have a disease and make an early detection.”

Using the software promises to reduce costs and streamline the Mexican health system. Also, it could prove beneficial to the country’s rural areas, where expertise areas such as ophthalmology have not arrived yet because of the high cost of equipment.

“It will help those that when they go to the eye doctor are already blind, we needed to go a step back, to know who is at risk and needs to go to a specialist. Not wait for a doctor,” says Altamirano Vallejo.