Results of Renovatio, a non-profit organization that brings visual health and prescription glasses to those who need them the most, saw more than 410,000 eye treatments in 25 Brazilian states and three countries. They also donated more than 180,000 glasses.

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), one in six Brazilians has a vision problem. With an adapted 100m² bus, transformed into two modern mobile eye clinics, Renovatio is able to serve medical deserts, such as remote towns, indigenous villages and riverside communities.

“We believe that the most difficult places to reach are the ones that need us the most. Today, 71% of Brazilian municipalities don’t even have an ophthalmologist,” says ophthalmologist and Renovatio’s medical director, Bruna Gil Ferreira.

Since 2022, Renovatio has been using the Eyer portable fundus camera to screen patients. They currently have almost 50 units. The main factors for choosing Eyer were its portability, the fact that it is a Brazilian product and the EyerCloud cloud platform, which allows exams to be stored and shared remotely and in real time.

“The possibility of sending the images for analysis and getting immediate medical consultations, even in remote areas, contributes to a more agile and effective assessment of patients. Sometimes I’m in São Paulo and I can access, in real time, the examination of a patient being treated in the Xingu Indigenous Park,” Ferreira points out.

Renovatio invested in Eyer because of the EyerCloud cloud platform, among other factors.

During the exams, the team evaluates the visual acuity, tonometry, keratometry and uses Eyer for fundus examinations. When Eyermaps artificial intelligence system detects possible retinal alterations, the patient is referred for a medical consultation with a specialist.

If an alteration is suspected, the AI generates a new image with a heatmap highlighting potential retinal abnormalities. The system can help detect diseases like glaucoma, Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy, vascular tortuosity, occlusions, papilledema, retinitis pigmentosa,nevus, and many more.

Ferreira points out that most social work in the ophthalmology area follows protocols based only on visual acuity and, as a result, other diseases are not diagnosed. “Including Eyer in our protocol has contributed greatly to identifying silent diseases that can go unnoticed in screenings focused only on vision.”

A child being examined with Eyer during a social action by the NGO Renovatio.

Chorioretinitis caused by toxoplasmosis

By storing all the fundus images in EyerCloud, Renovatio carried out a comparative study of the frequency of chorioretinitis scars caused by toxoplasmosis in different regions of Brazil.

In total, 9,648 fundus images were evaluated:

• Distrito Federal (DF) – 2.496;
• Tocantins (TO) – 2.426;
• São Paulo (SP) – 1.862;
• Minas Gerais (MG) – 1.602;
• Rio Grande do Norte (RN) – 742;
• Rio de Janeiro (RJ) – 502.

The majority of exams (89.04%) showed no alterations. Of the 10.95% of images with alterations, 7.09% contained suspicions and confirmations of chorioretinitis scars:

• Tocantins (TO) – 62,7%;
• Minas Gerais (MG) – 14,7%;
• Distrito Federal (DF) – 10,07%;
• São Paulo (SP) – 8%;
• Rio de Janeiro (RJ) – 2,7%;
• Rio Grande do Norte (RN) – 1,3%.

Among the results obtained in all states, there was a higher prevalence in women (74.7%) and a higher number of cases in the left eye (37.3%), followed by both eyes (33.3%) and then the right eye (29.3%).

It is also worth noting that the state of Tocantins had the highest incidence of the disease in the left eye (26.7%), in both eyes (17.3%) and in the right eye (18.7% of diagnosed cases).

The use of Eyer integrated with EyerCloud allowed Renovatio to carry out this important mapping, which can help with future management of toxoplasmosis, a pathology that can lead to loss of vision.

NGO Renovatio has already traveled to 25 Brazilian states providing free ophthalmic consultations and donating prescription glasses to those who need them most.

Eyer

Eyer is a portable fundus camera that works with an integrated smartphone to perform high-quality retinal examinations in just a few minutes without the need for pupil dilation. 

Currently, more than 15 million tests have been carried out in Brazil, the United States, Chile, Colombia and Japan. The technology is also present in the United Arab Emirates and is in the regulatory process of being marketed in Mexico, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Phelcom recently launched Eyer2, a true visual examination platform that allows you to capture the posterior and anterior segments with high quality images.

With new embedded tools and improved functions, the new equipment makes it possible to capture various conditions of the anterior segment of the eye, such as blepharitis,eyelash alterations, meibomian gland dysfunction, styes, conjunctival tumors, eyelid tumors, advanced cataracts, foreign bodies, burns, corneal lesions and keratitis in general, caused by dry eye, contact lenses, infections and ulcers.

Portability, connectivity and integration with intelligent functions such as EyerMaps, together with the technology’s affordability, are contributing to increased access to retinal examinations.

About Phelcom

Phelcom Technologies is a Brazilian medtech company based in São Carlos, in the interior area of São Paulo. The company’s story began in 2016, when three young researchers – a physicist, an electronics engineer and a computer engineer (physics, electronics, computing) – created a portable fundus camera integrated with a smartphone.

The first prototype project was born out of partner Diego Lencione’s interest in visual health, as his brother has had a condition that has severely compromised his retina and vision since childhood.

In 2019, Phelcom launched its first product in the Brazilian market: the Eyer portable fundus camera. Today, the technology has reached more than two million people throughout Brazil and in the countries where it is present and has been used in  more than 100 community screenings.