3nethra – An intelligent pre-screening Ophthalmology device

The Problem - Limited Screening Options for Visual Impairment

• India has an estimated 12 million blind people (over 25% of 45 million cases worldwide).
• Over 80% of those cases of classified blindness are avoidable.
• Diabetic retinopathy, cataract, glaucoma, cornea problems and refractive errors constitute 90% of blindness.
• Only 14000 ophthalmologists practice in India and a mere 800 ophthalmologists graduate every year.
• Ophthalmologist to patient ratio is approximately 1:60000--This is much worse in rural areas.
• Only around 7-10% of people at various stages of blindness are screened and treated.
• Current vision care system needs expensive diagnostic devices for screening (single device for every problem), coupled with the availability of high skilled ophthalmologist during screening. This increases cost of service substantially and hence limits scalability. As a result, the rural market remains grossly underserved.

• 3nethra – A single, portable, intelligent, non-invasive, non-mydriatic eye pre-screening device that can detect the above 5 major ailments
• Provides an automated “Normal" or "Need to See a Doctor" report, which is useful especially during early onset of an eye disease when patients do not experience symptoms
• Connects primary care centres to secondary or tertiary care centres through telemedicine for remote diagnosis
• Device is low-cost and hence greatly reduces direct and indirect cost of screening, making it available to rural populations

• Doctors: Ophthalmic doctors will spend their time only on patients with urgent cases. Telemedicine connectivity will help doctors offer remote diagnosis for a rural patient from the comforts of a hospital.
• Hospitals: Screening in rural areas will help hospitals identify patients at early stages, thereby increasing inflow of symptomatic patients. This will not only be a business proposition but also a great social cause. Hospitals can also serve their “outreach” market better, thereby increasing their funnel.
• Patients: Pre-screening at low cost, integrated with remote diagnosis and other models can help a patient get screened for a problem right at his doorstep in a remote Indian village. This saves travel and associated time and cost, as well as lost wages.
• Government: Billions of dollars are spent by governments all around the world on blindness prevention. 3nethra will be a great value enhancer.