Cataracts don't only affect older people ...
Did you know that cataract is the commonest cause of avoidable child blindness in the world?

The DIvO (Digital Imaging versus Ophthalmoscopy) study is a three year UK clinical study which aims to find out if digital imaging is a more accurate method of detecting cataracts in newborn babies than the current technique using an ophthalmoscope (a medical eye torch). Recruitment of babies for the study has now closed and we are analysing the data.

Each of around 40,000 babies who took part in the study was examined using both the normal ophthalmoscopy test and imaging with the Neocam device, which will allow us to compare the two methods to see if either is more accurate. This is a rare condition - only around 1 in 3,000 babies are born with cataract - so we needed a large number to take part in the study to be sure of the result. Mothers and babies were recruited from 30 NHS maternity hospitals in England.

​ ​​Find out more about baby cataract here.     Find out more about newborn eye screening here.

​​WHAT THIS COULD THIS MEAN FOR THE FUTURE ..

Improved cataract detection, resulting in earlier surgery, could reduce the risk of life-long visual impairment in babies born with cataract. In the UK, the findings of this study could lead to changes in the national newborn eye screening policy.

We also hope that the anonymised eye images collected from this study will eventually be used to develop and train the software used with the imaging device, allowing it to automatically alert the midwife when it recognised a potential problem.

An accurate method of eye screening for infants and children could then be made available in thousands of rural communities across the world where trained healthcare staff are often not available.