First-Sight Refractive Error Correction in the Developing World

In remote and underserved areas, a patient may have limited or no access to eye specialists or healthcare facilities that offer equipment to provide standard refraction and purchase corrective lenses. First Sight Refracting system (FSR) is designed specifically to be used in remote and underserved areas. FSR is not considered the standard of care in the US. FSR is a portable refraction and lens-frame dispensing system with low cost of production. As a kit, it contains +/- 6.00 diopters of corrective lenses, color coordinated flipper, - 1.25 diopter astigmatism lens, visual acuity chart, astigmatic eye chart, measuring tape to measure the distance of the subject to the eye charts, pupillary distance ruler to measure for the frame size of the glasses to be dispensed, and lint free gloves. The kit comes with two standard frames. The corrective lenses are designed to be placed in the frames that can be readily dispensed to the patient after the refraction is done. The refraction technique is simple and straightforward and any healthcare worker in remote and underserved areas can provide the test and dispense glasses at no cost.

This is the third phase of First Sight refractive study to be done in Haiti. Adult and children subjects will be recruited during their routine examinations and/or visual acuity screenings at the Justinien Hospital. The proposed study will compare the visual acuity measurements obtained from the First Sight refraction system (test procedure) with the visual acuity measurements obtained from the autorefraction (standard care). The international study will recruit 150 subjects which will test FSR's effectiveness as a refracting tool of choice to be used in remote and underserved areas. Data from this study will be compared with the US studies.