Strabi-Cure

Solution Name:

Strabi-Cure

One-line solution summary:

An app that helps diagnose rare variants of strabismus early in children and an Eco-friendly Jute string device to provide natural recovery.

Pitch your solution.

Many children do not go through formal vision screening as their parents are unaware or ignore the occurrence of Strabismus which affects 4% of the population. If left untreated before the age of 6, Amblyopia might, leading to permanent vision loss. Strabismus hinders their ability to perform routine and causes mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and psychosocial difficulties.

We developed a visual identification system that detects strabismus via your cell phone cameras with more than 90% accuracy. Thus helping parents and doctors diagnose strabismus early. Upon detection, the application suggests exercises that utilize Neuroplasticity to help retrain the brain into believing that it can use both eyes together as a team contributing towards improvement in the use of lazy eye.

If scaled globally, children especially in all areas can be tested for the occurrence of strabismus early and be treated before severe complication such as Amblyopia occur.

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

Strabi-Cure aims to help patients especially children diagnose strabismus and its rare variants such as intermittent exotropia that otherwise remain undetected for long periods of time. 2-6% of the global population suffers from strabismus and many a times parents are unaware of its occurrence in children. In most cases, strabismus is detected when it goes out of control. Thus requiring the patient to undergo extensive treatment. At present, treatments such as prism glasses provide a striated view, affecting spatial attention and surgery with a success rate of 48% yields mostly cosmetic benefits not to mention it costs upwards of $4000. In India alone, an estimated 35 million people suffer from strabismus. 

Strabi-Cure hopes to provide an affordable, and personalized early detection system accessible to Patients and doctors alike for early diagnosis of strabismus. Many patients are often confused and irregular in performing their exercises. Hence, the app guides the patient through exercises prescribed by the Doctor, provides alerts, diet plans, and achievement points to encourage children in keeping up with their exercises. 

Moreover the overall solution helped many in our community among relatives and friends hence can be the help to many others in its need.

What is your solution?

Strabi-Cure is a machine learning based application that utilizes our cell phone cameras to detect strabismus and its rare variants in children. Early detection helps in proper diagnosis and treatment. Since most parents are unaware or ignore the occurrence of Strabismus on the assumption that it will be outgrown, the risk of developing amblyopia is greatly heightened which may lead to permanent vision loss in the future. Upon detection, it can estimate the type of strabismus and its severity. The application then with the consultation of an ophthalmologist suggest interactive exercises for the children to perform. We're currently developing interacting games that keep the children engaged and build an enthusiasm to perform their routine exercises. The app is accompanied with an affordable Eco-Friendly jute string device which is made using biodegradable materials can be used for both eye pushups and string exercise, manufactured for less than $0.5. to make the product sustainable as compared to the brock string.

Our solution being a combination of hope, neuroplasticity, natural therapy and an app can bring big change in early diagnosis of such conditions, help to improve and to get naturally cured.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Our solution is mainly aimed at providing early diagnosis to children and provide exercises to those with intermittent Exotropia. This initiative was started to help the founder's brother, Zain, whose vision started to uncontrollably double every 2 hours and was at the risk of losing his eyesight. It took the doctors 5 months to diagnose his condition and when they did, he was left with surgery as his only option. When we looked within my own community, we found several cases just like Zain. Many of these children were unaware that they had problems with their vision and took it to granted. The same goes for their parents as well. By working closely with these children, and Zain, we were able to empathize with their plights and build a solution caters to their needs and provides an effective and affordable path to recovery. This is especially important as many of Strabismus's variants are observed in rural areas where Doctors are limited and the extreme cost of surgery deters patients and parents from looking into treatment any further. The app along with the jute string device cater to  this population as they're affordable and effective. The Jute string device can be manufactured for less than $0.5 and with provided instruction be cheaply bought and used by these patients.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the Challenge.

Our solution got the potential to help parents, doctors and children with early diagnosis of strabismus and get it treated on time. As sometimes we fail to get our kids health issues diagnose in early stages due to unnoticeable defects, leading to big regrets later in life like what we faced.

Our main aim is to protect children from conditions which may lead to vision loss or mental health issues due to such delays.

We are testing it in our community among relatives and friends. It is helpful to them and so we believe can be helpful to others too.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

We have chosen the above stage as our product is a prototype and is going through regerous trials. We are trying to develop it further and testing in our community among relatives and friends who are in need of it for their kids eye care and well-being. 

Our main aim is to protect children through early diagnosis without leading to such severe conditions in future, that may lead to vision loss or mental health issues.

It is helpful to them and so we believe can be helpful to many others.

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Suha Zubair