Gobiquity

With only one in five children who have risk factors for amblyopia getting tested, Gobiquity Mobile Health is continuing to develop its smartphone-based early screening technology to break down those barriers, CEO Andrew Burns said at OIS@AAO 2015.

Gobiquity’s GoCheck Kids app is the first to perform photo-screening and provide real-time analysis to show if a child has risk factors for amblyopia, Burns said. Approximately 20% of children have amblyopia, and by 2020 around 400 million of them worldwide will be visually impaired. About 80% of cases can be treated if they’re diagnosed early enough, Burns said.

Gobiquity has identified pediatric vision as its “market of first emphasis” because of the large underserved population, Burns said. Fewer than 10% of U.S. physicians have adopted technology to screen for amblyopia, but demand would be higher if they could overcome the cost and workflow barriers, which GoCheck Kids addresses, he said.

To date, 39,000 screenings have been done with GoCheck Kids, and Gobiquity expects to accelerate distribution by creating an iPhone app, he said.

“We game-ified the visual acuity test, allowing physicians to have access to a clinically validated protocol and to be able to test the visual acuity so patients are going to be more excited to be involved,” he said. The app also provides age-based guidelines to the user.

“The net result is broader distribution, broader access and more children being identified so they can be treated,” Burns said.

Gobiquity is also in the early stage development of platforms for screening of age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, and is in the process of raising its series B financing, Burns said.

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