Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • ESG: THE IMPLEMENTATION IMPERATIVE
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Digital Health
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Transformation
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Unwell in America
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • Data Center
    • Data Center Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Patients
November 09, 2019 01:00 AM

App screens kids for eye problems before they can talk

Jessica Kim Cohen
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    A child being screened for vision problems using a smartphone.

    For children too young to read or even speak, photoscreening tools help clinicians identify vision issues as early as possible.

    When a patient goes to Children’s Hospital of Orange County for an annual well-child visit, there’s the standard exam: a nurse measures the child’s vital signs, weight and height, before the patient checks in with the doctor. But for the youngest children, there’s another step—and it involves a smartphone.

    CHOC early last year integrated an app called GoCheck Kids as part of routine care in well-child visits for patients ages 1 to 3 who visit providers in its primary-care network. The app screens for vision disorders in young children, many of whom are too young to describe their own vision, to help the provider decide whether a referral to an eye specialist is needed.

    When a child visits a pediatrician, a nurse takes out an iPhone—preloaded with the vision-screening app—and asks the child to look forward. After snapping a photo, the app analyzes how light refracts off the patient’s eyes to deduce the risk of vision abnormalities like amblyopia, a common vision development disorder in young children.

    If the app detects a risk factor, an off-site team at GoCheck—the company that developed GoCheck Kids—reviews the photos to confirm the finding.

    Existing methods to screen young children for conditions that lead to amblyopia, better known as lazy eye, weren’t cutting it, according to Dr. Charles Golden, a pediatrician and executive medical director of the primary-care network at CHOC. “There was a presumption that we were missing subtle cases,” he said.

    Vision problems are one of the most prevalent disabling conditions among children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although some—such as amblyopia—can be treated if healthcare professionals intervene early.

    The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in 2017 said there’s insufficient evidence to recommend vision screening for children younger than age 3, but pediatrics industry groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics have said that instrument-based screening—such as photoscreening, the technique used by GoCheck Kids—should be used for children ages 1 to 3.

    If a child with amblyopia doesn’t receive treatment, it can lead to long-term vision issues.

    “Once the brain is fully mature, you cannot go back in time and reverse that amblyopia,” said Dr. Geoffrey Bradford, the AAP’s section chair for ophthalmology and a pediatric ophthalmologist at West Virginia University Medicine. 

    But vision screening for young children is particularly challenging, he said.

    For children who are too young to read, or even speak, a Snellen chart—the standard eye exam with letters of various sizes—won’t work. So screening for vision problems would likely involve something called the cover-uncover test, in which a clinician would ask a child to watch an object in front of them, and assess their eye movements as they cover and uncover each eye.

    “It requires a great deal of skill,” Golden said of the test. “There are subtleties of abnormalities that may be missed.”

    GoCheck Kids is part of a growing market of these photoscreening tools, including those from companies like iScreen Vision, Plusoptix and Rebion. That market growth has been fueled, in part, by the AAP in 2016 releasing a policy statement that photoscreening can be used at annual well-child visits through age 5, or until a child can be reliably assessed using an eye chart.

    Well-child visits are the opportune time to do vision screening, Bradford said, though he acknowledged photoscreening can be expensive for providers. “It’s a big capital investment for a pediatrician to purchase one of these,” he said.

    For a standard plan, GoCheck charges healthcare organizations an estimated $149 per month per phone. As part of that, the company provides customers with an iPhone outfitted with a specialized case that concentrates the camera’s flash. Fees might vary if a customer wants other services like on-site training or volume-based discounts.

    On top of the cost for the service, not all health plans cover photoscreening. CHOC has applied for some grants for the program, but it’s overall a cost for the health system, as at least half of its patients aren’t covered for the exam, according to Golden.

    “We’re doing the service for all children that need a well-visit check,” Golden said. “We code for it, submit the claim form—if we get reimbursed, great. If we don’t, we just chalk that up as, unfortunately, a loss.”

    There’s also a cost impact for not screening pediatric patients, Golden said. If a patient with a vision disorder isn’t treated, they could need more costly interventions later on, such as glasses, ongoing ophthalmology visits and even surgeries.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    Pills
    Patients complain some obesity care startups offer pills, and not much else
    Doctor with patients in a clinic waiting room
    Doctors drop patients not seen in a few years
    Most Popular
    1
    More healthcare organizations at risk of credit default, Moody's says
    2
    Centene fills out senior executive team with new president, COO
    3
    SCAN, CareOregon plan to merge into the HealthRight Group
    4
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unveils big push that lets physicians take on risk, reap rewards
    5
    Bright Health weighs reverse stock split as delisting looms
    Sponsored Content
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Digital Health
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Unwell in America
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top 25 Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Data Center
      • Data Center Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing