ANSAN (Amrita Nethra Samrakshan System) A Mobile App to Assist Hospitals for Glaucoma Screening

In India, around 12 Million people suffer from glaucoma, and 1.5 million are blind due to it. However, more than 75% of glaucoma cases are undiagnosed. Millions of individuals worldwide experience blindness due to the unfortunate reality that they were unaware of their glaucoma diagnosis. As per the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], glaucoma is among the primary causes of blindness and visual impairment, particularly in high-income nations. This motivated us to develop and implement a system advantageous to both healthcare facilities and potential patients (i.e., the general public). We posit that this system will substantially mitigate the disease’s severity, which will be discussed in this paper. Individuals can self-register for the application, or frontline workers, doctors, or hospital management personnel can add them. Upon registration, their medical history is collected, fundus images of their eyes are captured and uploaded, and an immediate prediction of the presence or absence of glaucoma is provided. A report of the findings is shared with the hospital’s doctors, among other actions. Both the patient and the doctor can review the reports. Depending on the severity, doctors can add comments to the reports, which patients can view and respond to. There were apps like the Yanbao app [2], but it only works on iOS, and our app ANSAN works on both Android and iOS platforms and has more personalized features in comparison. The app was shortlisted for the Google Solutions Challenge [3] India Regional Bootcamp when submitted in 2024. We propose two models: one [4] wherein data is stored in a relational database model in the hospital’s server, and another where data is stored in a NoSQL model [5] integrated by Google Firebase tools. The app is scalable on both ends naturally by design. ANSAN can be a real-world application to help doctors, potential patients, and the world in reducing cases where glaucoma is the cause of blindness through early detection.