Bausch + Lomb, IBM Collaboration: Companies Team Up To Create iOS App For Cataract Surgeons

A lot of people are often seen glued to their smartphones, day and night, that can result in damaged eyesight. Hence, Bausch + Lomb -- the world's largest supplier of eye health products -- together with IBM, announced their collaboration to work on the first ever iOS app for cataract surgeons.

How Does It Work?

"Fundamentally, they're trying to transform how surgeries are performed today," Terrel Marks, IBM's global Apple partnership lead for healthcare, said about its teamwork with Bausch + Lomb. The new application for iPhone and iPad devices opt to change the traditional ways of planning and operating on the patient, as well as the post-surgical check ups, according to ZDNet.

The iOS app will help to make the doctor's workload light by arranging their patients' details. This includes their clients' "intraocular lens (IOL) calculations, biometry results and lifestyle preferences."

With that, the iOS app will present the doctors with clinical approach and a support to choose the right IOL before the operation even begins. In the surgery room, doctors can take notes on their iPhone of iPad instead of carrying their physical handouts.

The Benefits Of New Technology

The use of new technology and the emergence of linked gadgets, which includes wearable devices like "smartwatches and fitness detectors, manage to track the users' data," as per Computerworld. The details that have been collected showed incredible growth, which only means digital tools are continously growing to help in the medical field with various insights.

"Health information is doubling every two years now," Terrel Marks said. "And it's too much for any one person to keep up with." The new iOS app of IBM and Bausch + Lomb will be launched later this 2016.

The Increased Rate Of Cataract Victims

PR Newswire reported that the removal of the cataract is one of the most operations done among Medicare recipients. In fact, the accounts of patients who have cataract are continually increasing.

Today, there are about 22 million Americans who are suffering from cataracts. Even more alarming, the rate may rise to 30 million in 2020. Cataracts have been known to cause blindness if left untreated and affects 70 percent of people when they reach 75 years of age.

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