In January this year, ophthalmologist Korn Malerbi boarded an expedition towards a special destination: taking free medical care to three indigenous reserves in the State of Mato Grosso. “I was invited to join a team of doctors who already takes periodical actions in these locations”, tells Malerbi.
The group consists of physicians of the Department of Social Medicine, from the USP Medical School (Ribeirão Preto), and the Department of Endocrinology, from Paulista School of Medicine, Unifesp.
The expedition counted on four specialists in the following areas: ophthalmology, endocrinology and preventive and social medicine.
Malerbi explains that the reserves Sangradouro, Meruri and São Marcos present high rates of diabetes mellitus. “This disease may trigger various other health conditions, such as diabetic retinopathy. In case it is not detected and adequately treated in time, this ophthalmological alteration may lead to blindness”, he clarifies.
In order to identify the disease and other possible disorders, the doctor carried out retinography and applanation tonometry. 193 indigenous people altogether were evaluated, from Xavante and Bororo communities, during eight days of work.
More than diabetic retinopathy, exams found cases of cataract.
Eyer
The ophthalmologist utilized Phelcom Eyer handheld fundus camera to perform the exams.
The equipment is state-of-the-art in portable retinography for prevention and diagnose of eye-related diseases.
It works attached to a smartphone and performs high-quality retina exams in few minutes, without need of pupil dilation. Synchronized to cloud, it automatically provides data to the online platform EyerCloud, so that they can be analyzed by a specialist anywhere over the world. That is, it enables remote diagnostic.
“It was a great experience with the equipment, mainly because of its portability and ease of access”, evaluates Malerbi.
He reminds of his involvement in other projects with the fundus camera, also for diagnosing diabetic retinopathy. “I believe Eyer to be very relevant for this kind of action, representing an important alternative for mapping and tracking diseases in populations from remote areas”, he finishes.
Ophthalmologist used Eyer to carry out exams and solve doubts on diagnostics.
Imagine a floating hospital with medical and dental offices, surgical center, complete ophthalmological room, analysis lab, medication room, vaccination room and infirmary beds. More than that: equipments for examinations as X-ray, electrocardiogram, mammograph and treadmil ergometer.
This is São Francisco Boat Hospital, built to take health and medical care to more than 1 thousand riverside communities in the Amazon Region. Associação e Fraternidade São Francisco de Assis na Providência de Deus, a Brazilian charity organization, idealized the boat and made dozens of expeditions in 2019.
One of them was in the municipality of Terra Santa, in Pará, from October 21 to 30. The expedition counted on several volunteers in different healthcare areas, such as ophthalmology, pediatrics, oncology, psychiatry, dermatology, plastic, orthodontics, inter alia.
Ophthalmologist Mariana Lafetá was one of the volunteers in that trip. “Each specialist has an office on boat and we travel from town to town offering medical care to the population. We consulted 4,052 people altogether”, she tells.
Regarding eyes, the doctor emphasizes that the main disease diagnosed was dry eye syndrome. Moreover, there were many cases of refractive errors, cataract, presbyopia (known as eyestrain), pterygium (known as surfer’s eye), blepharitis and meibomitis – these latter affecting glands around the eyelids. There were also cases of glaucoma and, in a very low rate, diabetic retinopathy.
Eyer
The doctor took Phelcom Eyer handheld fundus camera to the expedition. “Due to the great number of patients, I chose to use the device just in cases of diagnostic doubts and patients with glaucoma. Being able to email exams to the ones who had email addresses was interesting. This way, they could use them in future consultations”, emphasizes Lafetá.
The ophthalmologist says the equipment is easy to use and practical. “It is easy to carry out exams, take photos, find them among files and store afterwards. We can also send or print images, which I consider very interesting, besides getting to access them from anywhere with internet connection. I really liked it”, she analyzes.
Phelcom
“Eyer’s main goal is to democratize and take access to healthcare to locations presently suffering from infrastructure deficit in the area, such as of specialists and equipment. With portability, accessible prices and the possibility of remote diagnose, via cloud, we can help healthcare professionals to assist more people”, say startup Phelcom Technologies founders, José Augusto Stuchi, Flávio Pascoal Vieira and Diego Lencione.
According to the first World Report on Vision, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), 2,2 billion people around the world have a vision impairment. From this sum, 1 billion cases would be avoidable or remediable, such as myopia, cataract, glaucoma and hyperopia.
Phelcom Technologies was one of the companies invited to participate in the International Seminar on Innovative Startups in the Area of Health and Inclusion, which took place on November 23 in São Paulo.
The meeting presented the startups business models developed during the Startups Training and Development of People with Disabilities course offered by the São Paulo State Departament for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in partnership with the University of São Paulo (USP).
In addition to Phelcom, the international companies Renew Senses and Cure Medical were also some of the invited startups.
Phelcom co-founder and CEO José Augusto Stuchi presented the Eyer portable retinal camera, an innovative smartphone device that performs high quality exams. “Portability and low cost compared to the traditional fundus camera democratizes access to retinal examination, helping to prevent and diagnose blindness and severe visual impairment, diseases that affect about 250 million people in the world,” says Stuchi.
Today, 85% of Brazilian cities do not have ophthalmology services. With Eyer, the exams can be done anywhere and the generated data will be automatically synchronized with the internet, allowing the remote diagnosis.
The equipment is expected to be launched in early 2019.
Phelcom Technologies participated in the 21st National Free Diabetes Prevention Campaign, sponsored by the National Association of Diabetes Care (Anad), from November 7 to 14 in São Paulo, in partnership with the Instituto da Visão (Ipepo), Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and the German multinational Bayer. The event is related to the World Diabetes Day, celebrated on November 14.
At the time, the Brazilian startup examined about 500 patients with the portable fundus camera Eyer, an innovative product with high technology that will be launched soon by the company. “One of the chronic complications of diabetes is diabetic retinopathy, an early-stage asymptomatic disease that can cause severe visual impairment or even blindness when not diagnosed,” said Phelcom’s co-founder and CTO, Diego Lencione, who represented the company in this event.
More than 18 million people have diabetes in Brazil. The number may be higher because many cases have not yet been identified. “Today, almost 85% of Brazilian cities do not have access to ophthalmologists and ophthalmological devices that help diagnose the disease and its complications. Our objective with this portable device is to enable the care of communities that have limited access to this type of examination,” says Lencione.
Exams performed by the Phelcom portable retinal camera facilitated the diagnosis of retinal lesions and early referral for proper treatment of many patients during the task force.
Eyer is a portable retinal camera developed by Phelcom Technologies that aims to help combat severe visual impairment and blindness, which affect more than 250 million people worldwide. Currently, 75% of cases occur due to lack of prevention, early diagnosis and correct treatment.
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