A computer science graduate from Ashesi University, Nicole Nanka Bruce has made a significant contribution to healthcare delivery in the country by developing an AI mobile app to enable users to conduct home screenings for cataracts.

The app, with a precision rate of 95 percent, provides a cost-effective tool for the public as well as healthcare professionals on health outreach programs to test for cataracts.

In a video shared on Ashesi University's LinkedIn page on September 3, 2024, Nicole Bruce revealed that while preparing for her final year project, she found that cataracts were the leading cause of blindness in the country.

Subsequently, she decided to find an innovative solution to bring relief to individuals with the eye condition, leveraging existing technologies to address the problem.

The mobile app enables the average Ghanaian to self-assess for cataracts, even without any prior knowledge in eye care. It also provides a cost-effective tool for the public and health professionals on health outreach programs, seeking to raise awareness of the need to be conscious and seek timely treatment for cataracts.

She explained that the app utilizes a convolutional network model that mimics the human brain in making predictions.

"I chose to use the convolutional network model, which mimics the human brain, in making predictions.

"After my research, I embarked on an iterative journey of training and modifying the model in order to improve it's accuracy on a couple of data sets that I found online. I built the app using Flutter to make it across various platforms," she stated in the video shared on Ashesi University's LinkedIn page.

After developing the app, Nicole conducted a small-scale user study with eye specialists like ophthalmologists and optometrists on potential improvements that touched on interface and accessibility.

She explained that the mobile app has an accuracy rate of 95 percent.

"My findings indicated that the model had an accuracy of 95 percent and a low count of false negatives," she stated.

Data from the 2023 Eye Health Summit indicates that there are about 300,000 Ghanaians who are blind and about 332,000 who suffer from severe visual impairment, with cataracts accounting for 54.5% of all cases.

JKB/MA

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