Developing portable widefield fundus camera for teleophthalmology: Technical challenges and potential solutions.

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Conventional fundus cameras use trans-pupillary illumination, limiting the field of view (FOV) and often requiring pupil dilation.
• Affordable teleophthalmology relies on portable, low-cost, widefield fundus cameras.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent advancements in alternative illumination techniques for widefield fundus photography.
• To highlight innovations enabling compact and cost-effective fundus imaging solutions.

Main Methods:

• Review of miniaturized indirect illumination for compact camera design.
• Validation of contact and contact-free trans-pars-planar illumination for ultra-widefield imaging.
• Exploration of trans-palpebral illumination in smartphone-based fundus imagers.

Main Results:

• Miniaturized indirect illumination facilitates portable, low-cost widefield fundus cameras.
• Trans-pars-planar illumination enables ultra-widefield imaging in infants and widefield imaging in adults.
• Trans-palpebral illumination integrated into smartphone imagers promotes accessible teleophthalmology.

Conclusions:

• Alternative illumination strategies are crucial for advancing portable, widefield fundus photography.
• These developments pave the way for more accessible and affordable ophthalmic diagnostics and teleophthalmology.