Mobile app MyEyeGym offers patients eye exercises that they can do at home, to help treat their intermittent exotropia (divergent squint) a condition where one eye occasionally deviates outwards.​

Strabismus patients found eye exercises ​​more interesting and convenient.

Developed by the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), the study involved 103 patients, 32 of whom completed the study in its entirety (for six to eight weeks) using both the app and the traditional cardboard cards, which clinics usually give to patients to do eye exercises with for 10 minutes daily. Patients were to look at incomplete images of the same thing (e.g. a panda) and try to merge them into a third, complete picture.

More than half the patients preferred the app to the cards. Three in four found the app more interesting, and 84.3 per cent found it more accessible and convenient than the cards.

The traditional way of doing the exercises with cardboard cards is used in many clinics worldwide but there is a lack of compliance by patients, who complain of boredom. “Many patients who were given the cards tell us they’ve lost them. It shows how little they did the exercises,” said Ms Tan

Eye exercises that motivates children​​​​​​

The app, available for free, has 18 interesting images and animations. The variety is to motivate children to have a go. Black and white images were added this year after patients gave feedback that they were easier to fuse together.

There are three levels of difficulty, two of which are locked. When patients are ready to move to a higher level, they will be given a password to unlock it. When they finish an exercise, there are games they can play.

There is also an alarm function to remind patients to do their exercises and show up for their appointments at SNEC.

The app, which won one of SingHealth’s Allied Health Innovation Practice Awards in February 2014, will now be studied further using a larger pool of patients. “We hope to complete a study on its effectiveness in treating intermittent divergent squint. We believe it will be a useful tool for us in the clinic, and for patients to use at home to improve control of their eyes,” said SNEC Orthoptist Tan Yi Ling.

Click on page 2 to learn about how eye exercises can help patients with exotropia.

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Ref: R14​