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How might we transform the current manual vision screening process in schools to reduce dependency on healthcare personnel and external vendors, ensuring all students receive timely and standardized vision assessments.
How might we transform the current manual vision screening process in schools to reduce dependency on healthcare personnel and external vendors, ensuring all students receive timely and standardized vision assessments.
The current school health screening process involves up to 10 different stations that involve both nurses and external vendors to conduct with the children. We choose to narrow our focus on vision screening stations - specifically Snellen, colour vision and stereopsis test - that are resource intensive where up to 3 nurses are required.
To better understand the challenges, we conducted school visits and observed the operational needs and pain points at each of the vision screening stations.
Requires manual guidance and supervision to ensure students are positioned correctly and reading the chart accurately.
Involves nurse flipping of a colour vision chart book for students to identify numbers within colored shapes, requiring close supervision.
Tests students' depth perception and requires careful manual intervention to guide the students through the process.
Given these challenges, we explored the potential for automating these vision screening stations to streamline the process, reduce the reliance on healthcare personnel, and improve the overall efficiency of the screenings. We identified the opportunity for a self-service model, where students, teachers, or even parents could conduct the screenings independently. The system would automatically record the results and flag any abnormal findings for follow-up, significantly reducing the need for manual intervention.
Our solution digitizes and automates the vision screening process by replacing traditional physical equipment (e.g., Snellen charts, color vision tests) with a digital, user-friendly system accessible on desktops, iPads, or touchscreen devices. Key features include
Displays the various vision tests digitally and guides the student through the station.
Allows the student to input the responses via touch input and writing. The tablet app also guides the student through audio and image guides.
Backend system to verify the inputs as well as to control the state of the flow of the all the vision tests.
a) Students would sit ~1.5m away from the monitor and run through the vision test in the sequence of: Snellen > colour vision > 3D Vision.
b) Instruction would be displayed on both monitor and Tablet and student would input what they see
c) The system backed by a machine learning model would recognised the handwriting against the vision test and the vision result would be tabulated at the end.
The implementation of the digital vision screening solution has the potential to create significant positive impacts across multiple dimensions, including operational efficiency, health outcomes, cost savings, and stakeholder satisfaction. Below is an analysis of the potential impacts and outcomes:
Reduced Dependency on Healthcare Personnel: By automating the vision screening process, the solution reduces the need for nurses to manually conduct and verify tests, freeing them up for other critical tasks.
Standardized Assessments: Digital tests ensure consistent and standardized screening for all students, minimizing human error and variability.
Reduced Manpower Costs: By reducing the dependency on nurses and external vendors, the solution lowers operational costs associated with school health screenings.
Students: A user-friendly, digital interface makes the screening process less intimidating and more engaging for students.
Nurses and Teachers: Automation reduces the workload for nurses and teachers, allowing them to focus on other important tasks.
Parents: Timely and accurate screenings provide parents with peace of mind about their child's health.
To ensure the successful implementation and scalability of the digital vision screening solution, the following future steps are recommended:
