Use Smartphone Pupillometry to Triage Brain Injury in Rural Missouri

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manifund.org·manifund.org/projects/use-smartphone-p

This is a crowdfunding project on Manifund for smartphone-based brain injury triage technology in rural Missouri. It has no direct relevance to AI safety, alignment, or related topics.

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Summary

This Manifund grant project (ACX Grants 2024) funds PupilScreen, a smartphone-based pupillometer designed to bridge the gap between expensive digital infrared pupillometers and inaccurate manual penlight exams. The tool aims to improve triage of traumatic brain injury, stroke, and other neurological conditions in rural and underserved settings. The project reached its $60,000 funding goal.

Key Points

•TBI is the leading cause of mortality under age 45 in the US, with up to 60% of severe cases under-triaged, leading to 25% excess mortality.
•Current digital pupillometers cost ~$9,000/unit and require extensive training, limiting use outside neurological ICUs.
•Manual penlight pupillometry is subjective and misses many clinically meaningful changes in pupillary light reflex.
•PupilScreen uses smartphone cameras to provide accurate, affordable, accessible pupillometry for first responders and rural clinicians.
•Project fully funded at $60,000 through Manifund's ACX Grants 2024 program.

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Use smartphone pupillometry to triage brain injury in rural Missouri.

ACX Grants 2024

🍊

Anthony James Maxin

Active

Grant

$60,000raised

$60,000funding goal

Fully funded and not currently accepting donations.

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Longer description of your proposed project

In the general U.S. population, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of mortality in people under age 45 and accounts for over $75 billion in healthcare costs each year. Unfortunately, up to 60% of severely injured TBI patients are under-triaged and admitted to non-trauma hospitals - a critical flaw which in the US leads to an excess mortality rate of 25%. This problem is replicated in many other forms of brain injury, including acute stroke and acute substance intoxication.

In many cases the pupillary light reflex (PLR) is the only objective information a first responder or clinician may have in determining the severity of a patient’s neurological status. A normal PLR is defined as symmetric constriction or dilation of both pupils. The technique of measuring the PLR is known as pupillometry. The PLR can be represented as a curve with multiple characteristics, each of which has a range of normal values, and each of which may be altered to varying degrees. Because the neural pathways underlying the PLR include multiple brain regions, it is sensitive to a wide variety of injuries including stroke, TBI, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, substance use, and sleep deprivation.

There are two methods currently used by clinicians to measure the PLR – digital and manual pupillometry. Digital infrared pupillometry is a current quantitative option. While these devices are accurate and reliable, they suffer from several disadvantages that severely limit their adoption. The upfront cost is about $9,000 per unit and disposable parts are required for each new patient which adds significantly to the ongoing operating cost of the device. Their expense and fragility also make deployment in the field and low resource/underserved settings impractical. Extensive training in both the acquisition and interpretation of results is required and thus their use outside a neurological intensive care unit setting 

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