Tue 07 June 2022:
A smartphone app that identifies severe jaundice in newborn babies by scanning their eyes could be a life-saver in areas that lack access to expensive screening devices, suggests a study.
The app, called neoSCB, was developed by clinicians and engineers at University College London and was used to screen for jaundice in over 300 newborn babies in Ghana. An initial pilot study was conducted on 37 newborns at University College London Hospital (UCLH) in 2020.
The team analysed images taken on a smartphone camera to quantify the yellowness of the white part of the eye (sclera) – a sign of neonatal jaundice.
Analysing the yellowness of the eye just by looking is unreliable, and the neoSCB app can give early diagnosis of neonatal jaundice requiring treatment, said researchers in the paper published in the journal Paediatrics.
Of the 336 babies tested by the app, 79 were severely jaundiced newborns, and the app correctly identified 74 of them. This is in line with the accuracy of the most common conventional screening method, a non-invasive device known as a transcutaneous bilirubinometre, which correctly identified 76.
A smartphone app that identifies severe jaundice in newborn babies by scanning their eyes could be a life-saver in areas that lack access to expensive screening devices, suggests a study.
The app, called neoSCB, was developed by clinicians and engineers at University College London and was used to screen for jaundice in over 300 newborn babies in Ghana. An initial pilot study was conducted on 37 newborns at University College London Hospital (UCLH) in 2020.
The team analysed images taken on a smartphone camera to quantify the yellowness of the white part of the eye (sclera) – a sign of neonatal jaundice.
Analysing the yellowness of the eye just by looking is unreliable, and the neoSCB app can give early diagnosis of neonatal jaundice requiring treatment, said researchers in the paper published in the journal Paediatrics.
Of the 336 babies tested by the app, 79 were severely jaundiced newborns, and the app correctly identified 74 of them. This is in line with the accuracy of the most common conventional screening method, a non-invasive device known as a transcutaneous bilirubinometre, which correctly identified 76.
-IANS
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