Smart approach to better sight for children
Shanghai has introduced and promoted intelligent medical equipment for children's eye health and myopia screening.
This allows quick and simple eye testing for some 1.7 million primary and middle school students each year, officials from the Shanghai Eye Disease Prevention and Control Center said.
They were speaking at a health promotion event on eye care and vision protection for minors over the weekend.
Shanghai has established an eye health database for all primary and middle school students, and has made good progress in myopia prevention and control.
Children queue to undergo an automatic eye screening.
According to Dr Zou Haidong, director of the Shanghai Eye Disease Prevention and Control Center, the leader of the project, the center has organized local eye care centers and community-based medical facilities. These conduct wide screenings of students regularly. The major problems are refractive errors like myopia and astigmatism.
To enhance the efficiency and quality of screening, the center has teamed up with high-tech companies to develop smart equipment. This can automatically check vision, optometry and axial length measurement without the participation of professionals. These intelligent machines can be operated by teachers and students themselves.
The myopia prevalence among local children and minors is 60 percent.
Zou said proper use of digital screens and outdoor exercises are important for eye health.
The center offers online and offline educational events to promote the awareness of eye health among students and parents.
It also developed a play to teach students the knowledge and methods of myopia prevention and control through interesting and fun ways, officials said.
