In the News
The Arclight Project has gained considerable interest from the mainstream media as well as academic institutions, industry magazines and conference reports. Below are some of the recent highlights.
WHO recommendations on maternal and newborn care for a positive postnatal experience
The World Health Organisation have included the Arclight ophthalmoscope in its most recent recommendations for eye examinations in the newborn. This is the first time that eye examinations have been recommended in low resource settings. This change to policy has been driven by the expanding evidence base for the device and the instructional materials developed by the Arclight Project team with the London School of Hygiene and tropical medicine with the Ministry of Health in Tanzania.
WHO includes universal newborn eye screening in their first ever postnatal care guidelines
The International Association for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) have highlighted the World Health Organisation’s latest recommendations to include eye examinations for newborns in low resource settings. The recommendation has been driven by the growing evidence base for the Arclight direct ophthalmoscope being a low cost yet effective alternative to otherwise impractically expensive and overly complex traditional tools.
Frugal Ophthalmology
The Royal College of Ophthalmologist’s published a review of the Arclight Project’s frugal approach to eye care in a recent ‘FOCUS’ article. The article highlights the increasing awareness of the Arclight diagnostic and training tools by the wider ophthalmic community both in the UK and globally.
WHO Primary Ear and Hearing Care Training Manual.
There is a strong and growing evidence base for the Arclight otoscope being equivalent in practical function to more expensive traditional devices. It has been highlighted in the latest (March 2023) edition.
COECSA Conference Malawi 2022
Dr Blaikie, Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine and Ophthalmologist in NHS Fife was an invited speaker at the College of Ophthalmology of East, Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) in Lilongwe, Malawi last week.
He delivered a talk on the Arclight Project and the Primary Eye Care education programmes that the team has been implementing in Malawi this year with the Christian Blind Mission (CBM). This work was funded by UK AID and the Malawi Millennium Fund.
As well as giving an invited lecture he presented 5 different research papers from the Arclight team. These involved partnerships with the University of Rwanda, Sabatia Eye Hospital in Kenya, NHS Fife, vCreate Telemedicine Platform, University of Glasgow and the Glasgow Caledonian University. The work was funded by the Scottish Funding Council, the Global Challenges Research Fund, the Ulverscroft Foundation and the University of St Andrews Impact fund.
He is photographed here with two of his Ophthalmology colleagues from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda: Rebecca Lusobya and Immaculate Atakunda. Together with Dr Blaikie they secured a grant from Makerere University Research & Innovations Fund to deliver a study on the ‘Comparative assessment of the anterior segment loupe of the Arclight device amongst ophthalmic clinical officers in Uganda’. Immaculate who led the research presented the results of this study and is now looking to publish in the near future.
As well as presenting research the meeting was an opportunity to network with several of the major eye care NGOs as well as National Eye Care Coordinators from many of the countries from the region.
COECSA is to be held in Mombasa, Kenya next year where the organising committee have invited the Arclight Project team to deliver several ‘hands-on’ Arclight Project workshops.
Eye Specialist Advocates For Prompt Referral Of Abnormal Eye Conditions
Professor Vera Adobea Essuman, an Eye Specialist at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, is advocating the prompt referral of abnormal eye conditions to help reduce the mortality rate of retinoblastoma in Ghana.
Scottish Edge Entrepreneurial Awards
Andrew Blaikie, lead of the Arclight Project and Jamie Bankhead, CEO of Konglomerate Games, attended the recent Scottish Edge Finals entrepreneurial awards evening held in Edinburgh. The team pitched a proposal for gamifying eye care education on low end android phones for use in resource poor settings. This is with the aim of overcoming the current COVID restrictions that are limiting access to education in many low and middle income countries. The pitch was successful with the team being awarded a £10,000 Scottish Edge prize to develop the games in 2022.
Best Paper Presentation, Scottish Ophthalmology Club Spring meeting 2022
Retinal lasering is used to treat blinding eye conditions such as diabetic eye disease. Retinal lasering is a potentially hazardous procedure, therefore simulation-based training ideal to learn the skill in a safe and controlled environment. However, most simulation tools are too expensive for those training in low resource settings where the need is greatest.
The Arclight team have developed a low-cost simulation eye adapted for retinal laser training and assessment. The ‘eye’ costs £4 but it has a paper retina that the user can re-print as needed. It has been validated by experts as a teaching tool and presented in Scottish Ophthalmology Club Spring meeting 2022 where it won the prize for the best paper presentation. View Presentation.
Arclight Review
“Find out why the Arclight is the best value diagnostic set available and why you should use it.” Watch Arclight Review
Eye to Eye Podcast
“The College works in collaboration with the Ophthalmologists in Training Group to produce a bi-monthly podcast. The podcast features interviews with researchers on recent papers, analysis of the latest developments in ophthalmology and updates from the College.”
What is the Arclight?
“The Arclight is a multi-purpose solar-powered diagnostic tool that combines a direct ophthalmoscope, anterior segment loupe and otoscope (as well as a number of other functions) into a small highly portable device.”
Arclight Tandem Africa
“In October 2018, Alex McMaster and Merlin Hetherington set out from Cairo to ride a tandem bike to Capetown. The 10,000km journey would pass through 10 countries, where the two had arranged to provide training and devices for health-care workers in a variety of settings.”
Know the Glow: Dr Andrew Blaikie
“Dr. Andrew Blaikie was fresh out of the cataract operating theatre in NHS Fife, Scotland when Megan Webber, Co-Founder of KnowTheGlow sat down to zoom with the ophthalmologist and senior lecturer at the University of St Andrews School of Medicine.”
Arclight: A New Ophthalmoscope and Otoscope
“There are items of equipment without which a GP in clinic cannot function. Top of this list comes a stethoscope. Closely followed by an ophthalmoscope or otoscope.”
Pakistan Journal of Ophthalmology: Arc Light as an Alternative Approach to Diagnose Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) At Grass Root Level of Health Care System.
“Vision 2020 is the global initiative, launched in 1999 by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and World Health Organization (WHO), with the aim of eliminating avoidable blindness. In Pakistan, the national survey done in 2006 showed prevalence of blindness to be 3.4% and severe visual impairment as 4.9% in patients who were 30 years or older.”
Astrophysics Data System: Comparison between the Arclight Ophthalmoscope and a standard handheld direct ophthalmoscope: a clinical study
“The direct ophthalmoscope, a handheld device gives a highly magnified image of the retina. However, the sustainability of power source and cost are a limitation considering the usage demand. We compared a low-cost solar-powered Arclight ophthalmoscope with a standard ophthalmoscope Heine K180 in terms of ease of examination, usage, field of view, color rendition and patient comfort.”
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: The Arclight Ophthalmoscope: A Reliable Low-Cost Alternative to the Standard Direct Ophthalmoscope
“The Arclight ophthalmoscope is a low-cost alternative to standard direct ophthalmoscopes. This study compared the Arclight ophthalmoscope with the Heine K180 direct ophthalmoscope to evaluate its reliability in assessing the vertical cup disc ratio (VCDR) and its ease of use (EOU). Methods. Eight medical students used both the Arclight and the Heine ophthalmoscopes to examine the optic disc in 9 subjects.”
University of Dundee: Comparative evaluation of a novel solar powered low-cost ophthalmoscope (Arclight) by eye healthcare workers in Malawi
“This study compared a novel low-cost solar powered direct ophthalmoscope called the Arclight with a traditional direct ophthalmoscope (TDO). After appropriate training, 25 Malawian eye healthcare workers were asked to examine 12 retinal images placed in a teaching manikin head with both the Arclight ophthalmoscope and a traditional direct ophthalmoscope (Keeler Professional V.2.8).”
ArXIV, University of Cornell: Synthesising Wider Field Images from Narrow-Field Retinal Video Acquired Using a Low-Cost Direct Ophthalmoscope (Arclight) Attached to a Smartphone
“Access to low cost retinal imaging devices in low and middle income countries is limited, compromising progress in preventing needless blindness. The Arclight is a recently developed low-cost solar powered direct ophthalmoscope which can be attached to the camera of a smartphone to acquire retinal images and video.”
Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmology: CREATION OF WIDE FIELD RETINAL IMAGES FROM NARROW FIELD VIDEO ACQUIRED BY AN ARCLIGHT DIRECT OPHTHALMOSCOPE
“When attached to a mobile phone camera the Arclight Ophthalmoscope (AO) can acquire reti- nal video segments, offering an ultra-low cost opportunity to expand telemedicine in low-income settings. Innate limitations of direct ophthalmos- copy, i.e. narrow field of view, limit clinical utility, particularly in screening for diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity. We aimed to create a novel computer algorithm capable of extracting images from videos providing wider-field fundal montages.”
IEEE Xplore: Synthesising Wider Field Images from Narrow-Field Retinal Video Acquired Using a Low-Cost Direct Ophthalmoscope (Arclight) Attached to a Smartphone
“Access to low cost retinal imaging devices in low and middle income countries is limited, compromising progress in preventing needless blindness. The Arclight is a recently developed low-cost solar powered direct ophthalmoscope which can be attached to the camera of a smartphone to acquire retinal images and video.”
UCL Discovery: Arclight: a pocket ophthalmoscope for the 21st century
“Around 285 million people in the world are estimated to be visually impaired, and 360 million hearing impaired, with the majority of cases considered preventable or treatable if diagnosed promptly. Ophthalmoscopes and otoscopes are typically designed for wealthy countries and are complex, heavy, and expensive; their basic designs have remained relatively unchanged for over 100 years.”
AIPB: Arclight
“Arclight is an easy-to-use, pocket-sized ophthalmoscope made for diagnosing eye diseases in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). Heavily discounted prices for LMIC enabling health workers in out-reach or screening programs to make instant on-the-spot diagnostic decisions.”
MDU Journal: Visionary ideas: the Arclight and RCP bedside vision check tool
“A small team based out of the School of Medicine at St Andrews University has helped develop an innovative pocket ophthalmoscope and otoscope called the Arclight, which is designed to be used in almost any clinical setting. “
Eye News: The Arclight: A ‘pocket’ ophthalmoscope to revitalise undergraduate teaching?
“Ophthalmoscopy should be a core skill for every doctor and should be firmly embedded in the undergraduate curriculum similar to the unquestioned position of the stethoscope. The simplicity of the Arclight means it is easy to use and, importantly, to learn to use.”
Rotary, St Andrews: Gregor Townsend in Look Who’s Talking
“Scottish rugby coach, Gregor Townsend gave an entertaining interview about his career. Over £5000 was raised for St Andrews Rotary’s Arclight project, helped by sponsorship from Henderson Black & Co accountants.”
