| ABSTRACT |
ABSTRACT
At a global level, there is a critical need for technological tools that improve access to vision care to address the most common cause of visual impairment: uncorrected refractive errors. Due to the worldwide shortage of vision care professionals,obtaining accurate prescriptions for glasses that effectively correct refractive errors and restore vision is often a challenge, especially in resource-limited settings.
This thesis describes the development of advanced ophthalmological technology capable of prescribing glasses accurately, affordably, and quickly. To achieve this, we have utilized a wavefront aberrometry-based autorefractor called QuickSee, which is portable and can provide eyeglass prescriptions in just 10 seconds. Its validation in different populations and global usage has served as the starting point for this work to further improve access to vision care worldwide. Since there is always a percentage of patients considered outliers when comparing the objective results of autorefractors to the gold standard, which is the subjective refraction process where a doctor tests and asks the patient about their comfort with different lenses, we have implemented a series of advanced features to enhance these predictions. A new algorithm has been developed that accurately simulates the patient’s vision with different corrections and facilitates the determination, through iterative calculations, of the correction that maximizes certain visual quality metrics (e.g., sharpness or contrast). Additionally, a new device, QuickSee Free Pro Keratometry, has been designed, which is portable and very low-cost, improving features such as ease of use, alignment, reduced patient cooperation in measurements, and reduced weight. This device will allow individuals with minimal training to easily obtain accurate and reliable glasses prescriptions anywhere. It will integrate a high-precision wavefront aberrometer for measuring refractive errors and a keratometer for measuring corneal curvature into a compact chassis. Throughout this doctoral thesis, a new version of measurement technology has been incorporated to rapidly and accurately obtain objective refraction, along with new software developed to classify different corneal curvature radii, providing the user with more detailed information about the eye and corneal astigmatism. This new device, QuickSee Free Pro Keratometry, has the potential to address the massive problem of access to corrected vision by simplifying and expediting the glasses prescription process, potentially revolutionizing the way refraction is performed globally.
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