The five winners of the Clearly Vision Prize were recently announced and include an app designed to improve rural healthcare referrals, a folding phoropter, and a way to get affordable reading glasses where they are needed.
Run by the nonprofit organization Clearly, winners of the Clearly Vision Prize share $250,000 in cash prizes to help them get their ideas going.
Vula Mobile was awarded first place — a mobile phone app that gives health workers in remote rural areas the tools they need to capture accurate clinical information for visual acuity, light perception and other simple tests. The app then connects the health worker to a specialist who can give them instant expert advice.
Second place went to the Folding Phoropter, which is made from paper using simple origami, costs less than 50 cents, and can accurately test for refractive error. The third-place winner was Essmart, which aims to get affordable reading glasses into the hands of those who most need them. And two runners up include Smart Focus aimed at providing high quality, low cost eye exams in China, and a flexible on-demand transport service in Ghana called MAZA that could be used to transport glasses and optometrists where they are needed.
Image courtesy Clearly
Click here to read the full press release.