Optometrists work to develop online eye exam

If you're too busy to go the eye doctor, some entrepreneurs are working on a solution for you.

Aaron Dallek and Steven Lee, founders of Opternative, say they are developing the first online exam to deliver an accurate, valid prescription. The idea leaves a lot of onlookers scratching their heads, but investors are enthusiastic: The Chicago-based company just landed $1 million in seed funding.

Dallek, 30, a serial entrepreneur who created his first company at age 14, partnered with Lee, 35, an optometrist who began designing the Opternative tool in 2009, two years after graduating from optometry school. “I realized there had to be a better way,” Lee told Crain's Chicago Business.

The process works like this: A user calibrates the test to the size of his or her computer screen using a credit card and then steps back from the computer. The system begins projecting images. The test-taker answers Opternative's questions by using his or her smartphone as a remote control.

The exam takes five to 10 minutes. The test results then are sent to an eye doctor in Opternative's network for verification, and a signed prescription is e-mailed to the user within 24 hours. The cost, Dallek and Lee said, will be about $35.

The establishment is skeptical. The American Optometric Association warns on its website that “anyone claiming to perform an eye exam without physically examining a patient is offering insufficient, ambiguous information and is contributing to a patient believing—incorrectly—that his or her eye health needs have been met.”