Professor James Wolffsohn has outlined how the MyDryEye app can assist dry eye patients in recording and managing their symptoms – as well as guiding patients through blinking exercises.
“The app allows them to check their symptoms and risk factors. It also enables them to put in the medication that they are using,” he said.
He added that the technology can also be used to record compliance data. Wolffsohn noted that as well as assisting patients, the technology has the capacity to provide researchers with anonymised data.
“With the permission of patients, it will help us to collect real-world data that you don’t get in clinical trials,” he said.
Wolffsohn explained that the app also guides patients through evidence-backed blinking exercises to help patients with the management of dry eye.
He highlighted that patients who spend large amounts of time in front of screens tend to blink less frequently.
“Essentially we are trying to get the muscle memory back to remind them to blink and blink fully,” Wolffsohn shared.
“When we are staring at digital screens we tend to stop blinking, and when we do blink, it is a partial blink,” he said.
Wolffsohn highlighted that blinking helps to keep the meibomian glands healthy as well as keeping the tear film stable.
“It is about maintaining that natural, healthy blink mechanism that has developed over hundreds of thousands of years and unfortunately is being disrupted by some technological changes in a relatively short period of time,” he said.
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