The Alfred Hospital Is Getting A New Mobile Eye Test For Screening Neurological Diseases

A smartphone software that evaluates head and brain traumas from sports is currently undergoing testing to identify and track neurological conditions.

Clinical trials for BrainEye’s mobile test are under underway at Melbourne’s The Alfred Hospital. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to gather and measure more than 20 ocular biomarkers after digitizing the conventional eye movement exam, which can be completed in 60 seconds via a mobile device.

The Alfred is looking for 500 people with a range of neurological disorders, such as multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, to participate in the trials.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

BrainEye will use the data gathered from the trials to help develop a commercial device that will help identify and monitor neurological illnesses in communities.

Joanne Fielding, clinical trial principal investigator and chief scientific officer of BrainEye, stated, “Early detection with any neurological condition is critical, and while the efficacy of eye movement assessments in picking up abnormalities is well recognized, tests are typically only carried out in clinical settings, and often only when it’s too late.”

To help BrainEye better identify and comprehend normal and pathological brain functioning, the gathered biomarkers will be compared to signals from mentally healthy people.

THE MAJOR TREND

With a focus on concussions and brain injuries, BrainEye has conducted over 25,000 eye movement tests to far, the majority of which were conducted with major sports codes.

“This is an exciting development for BrainEye as we move from validating its utility in sports settings to its application in healthcare, where we intend to help users identify neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s,” said CEO Richard Nash about the latest trials at The Alfred.

“This innovative technology has great potential to be a practical and efficient tool for early monitoring of disease progression for a variety of neurological conditions,” noted Terence O’Brien, neurologist and professor and the program director of The Alfred Brain.