SURGICAL PEARLS

10 Cataract Surgery Apps for Mobile Devices

BY JAMES KNAUB, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

When you bought your last phone or tablet, it probably didn’t come preloaded with cataract surgery apps. There were games, maps, social media, personal productivity and shopping apps, but nothing to help busy surgeons perform their jobs. And whether you’re an Apple user or an Android user, the operating systems’ app stores can seem like a labyrinth.

To sort through that clutter, Ophthalmic ASC looked for apps relevant to cataract surgery. This article provides an overview of eight cataract surgery calculators designed for phones or tablets, ranging from toric IOL tools to surgeon factor calculators. It also includes two vision simulator apps designed to help ophthalmologists demonstrate what visual outcome the patient might expect from various IOLs.

For this article, we include apps available for Apple iOS or Google Android devices. Many IOL companies provide other Web-based calculators and patient education tools similar to those covered here. Desktop or laptop computer-based products generally provide similar functionality but without the portability and convenience of a mobile device. We also limited this to cataract surgery apps, purposefully excluding the ophthalmic reference apps and eye apps designed for a general audience.

Finally, nearly all of these apps include the appropriate disclaimers that they’re designed for eye care professionals who are responsible for their own results when using them.

SURGICAL PLANNING TOOLS

1. Toric Pro

itunes.apple.com/us/app/toric-pro/id864051046?mt=8

Platform: iOS 6.0 or later

Current version (updated): 14.1 (May 23, 2014)

Price: Free

Seller: Alcon Labs

Toric Pro is designed to help ophthalmologists expand their knowledge and skills of toric IOL implants. In addition to a comprehensive overview, it includes the following interactive learning modules:

• surgically induced astigmatism (SIA) calculation

• better biometry

• toric IOL calculator

• talking to patients, and

• practice marking the eye

The app also includes safety information about Alcon’s AcrySof toric IOLs.

2. Toric Calculator

appannie.com/apps/ios/app/toric-calculator/

Platform: iOS 5.0 or later

Current version (updated): 1.5 (June 2, 2012)

Seller: Evandro Souza

Price: $5.99

This app is designed to help the surgeon estimate how the incision will affect a patient’s visual outcome. It also simulates IOL rotation and incision location to estimate the amount of astigmatism that might be corrected by surgery and a toric IOL.

Souza also offers apps to plan limbal relaxing incisions, perform vector analysis and calculate IOL power.

3. IOL Calculator

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_Yorkito.IOL_II&hl=en

Platform: Android 1.5 or later

Current version (updated): 5.0 (August 26, 2013)

Seller: Yor

Price: $1.36

IOL Calculator is designed to help surgeons select the most appropriate IOL. The app helps user “calculate corneal refractive power variation in each axis, according to the location and diameter of the main incision, and the cylinder refractive change caused by the corneal incision.” The user must input the incision’s location and diameter, so the software can perform a vectorial astigmatism analysis, providing the final astigmatism power and axis, which is added to the IOL calculation.

4. SIA Calculator

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=appinventor.ai_Yorkito.SIA&hl=en

Platform: Android 1.5 or later

Current version (updated): 1.0 (July 22, 2014)

Seller: Yor

Price: $0.99

The surgeon user inputs pre- and postoperative keratometry data to calculate surgically induced astigmatism by vector analysis.

5. PAK

itunes.apple.com/us/app/post-myopic-refractive-surgery/id380589618?mt=8

Platform: iOS 6.0 or later

Current version (updated): 4.0 (November 20, 2013)

Seller: Jose Luis Cardenas

Price: Free

This app is designed to assist ophthalmologists with calculating IOL power in patients who have undergone previous refractive surgery but the surgeon doesn’t have preoperative refraction data. The app uses Sahamma’s formula. PAK also includes a calculator for safety depth parameters for excimer laser surgeries according to Munnerlyn’s nomogram.

6. Surgeon Factor Calculator

itunes.apple.com/us/app/surgeon-factor-calculator/id600896542?mt=86

Platform: iOS 6.0 or later

Current version (updated): 1.0 (February 14, 2013)

Seller: Anmar Abdul-Rahman, MD

Price: $2.99

This app provides two calculations relevant to the cataract surgeon. Surgeon factor calculator provides surgeon factor (including a database to aggregate and average surgeon factor through time), estimate IOL position and corresponding A-constant. The conversion calculator converts A-constant to surgeon factor and ACD constant to explore a range of possible values.

7. IOL-Calculator (Columbia University)

itunes.apple.com/us/app/iol-calculator/id456304691?mt=8

Platform: iOS 4.3 or later

Current version (updated): 1.0.0 (December 7, 2011)

Seller: Columbia University

Price: Free

This app is an IOL power calculator developed at the university.

8. IOL Calculator (Hydrogen³²)

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=liquid.opticalcalc

Platform: Android 2.1 or later

Current version (updated): 2.2.3 (May 28, 2012)

Seller: Hydrogen³²

Price: $9.99

This app bills itself as the “most comprehensive” IOL calculator on the market, offering calculation methods including Hoffer Q, Holladay I, SRK/T, Haigis and Binkhorst II. It also includes formulas for post-RK and post-Lasik Double K.

Other features include:

• ability to modify the A-constant, ACD and Surgeon Factor for all lenses for optimization

• ability to create a secure or non-secure PDF for patient records that can be printed via Google cloud print or emailed with password protection

• database of more than 70 lens choices from Alcon, Bausch and Lomb, AMO, and Staar

• secure personal information for printing patient records

• support for custom lens powers and stepping

VISION SIMULATORS

9. AcrySof IOL Vision Simulator

download.cnet.com/AcrySof-IOL-Vision-Simulator-US/3000-2129_4-75908448.html

Platform: iOS 5.0 or later

Current version (updated): 1.1 (March 8, 2014)

Price: Free

Seller: Alcon Labs

The AcrySof IOL Vision Simulator is an iPad-based patient-education tool designed to help ophthalmologists simulate a patient’s anticipated vision before and after cataract surgery using monofocal, multifocal and toric IOL. The app includes simulations of near, intermediate and distance vision, as well as vision conditions in nighttime settings.

The current version includes upgraded support for iOS 7 as well as a new launch screen.

10. Abbott IOL Vision Simulator

itunes.apple.com/us/app/abbott-iol-vision-simulator/id622926806?mt=8

Platform: iOS 4.3 or later

Current version (updated): 17.0.0.0 (June 8, 2014)

Seller: Abbott

Price: Free

This patient-education app is designed to assist physicians and their staff in demonstrating common eye conditions and simulates visual outcomes with different available IOLs. The user is able to select a country and display only IOLs available in that country. The newest version also includes hyperopia and myopia simulation, coverage for new countries and languages and update software for iOS 7. ■