Support our Peek Retina adapter now and become part of the solution to blindness.

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who supported us by donating or sharing our campaign! Pre-orders are now closed, and manufacture is well under way. Check the Updates tab for the latest news. Thank you again for your help!

Peek – the Portable Eye Examination Kit - makes eye tests affordable and easy anywhere in the world. Donate one to a clinic in need through our partners Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Around 39 million people are blind. 80% of this blindness is avoidable, but in many regions people don't have access to eye care.

Existing eye exam equipment is heavy, expensive, fragile and difficult to use. It’s not built to travel, it can feel intrusive, and it needs a reliable supply of electricity to work.

We’ve created Peek. It gives all the tools for professional eye exams from a smartphone. It makes eye exams easy and affordable, anywhere in the world.

See Andrew explain a bit more of our story in his TED talk

What is Peek Retina?

It’s a clip-on camera adapter that gives high quality images of the back of the eye and the retina. This helps us to diagnose cataracts, glaucoma and many other eye diseases, ready for treatment.

It has been developed by an award-winning team of experts in eye care, engineering and technology.

Peek Retina combines both a traditional ophthalmoscope and a retinal camera in a mobile phone, providing a portable, affordable and easy way to carry out comprehensive examinations.

It sits neatly over the top of the device allowing a healthcare worker to easily take high-quality images of the back of the eye. It feels much less intrusive for the patient too.

This is an image of the inside of the eye taken with Peek Retina: 

Who will this help?

We’re delighted to be working with Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. Together we will further identify projects and teams worldwide that will have the greatest impact on people’s lives by using Peek Retina.

Studies have shown that a healthcare worker using Peek can assess over 1,000 people per week. Many of these people will go on to receive treatment.

Here are just a few examples of hundreds of vital projects that your donations will go to support:

Changing the lives of people who are blind from cataracts
In eye care clinics like St Mary’s Hospital in Kenya, staff on outreach programmes will use Peek Retina. It will allow them to travel widely to diagnose people in remote locations. Peek Retina will help identify people who need cataract surgery. It’s a relatively simple surgery that has a life-changing impact.

Preventing blindness from diabetes
Peek Retina will go to community healthcare workers in countries like Tanzania and India. It will be used to spot the early signs of people going blind from diabetes. This means that treatment can be delivered to save people’s sight before it is too late.

Checking for signs of malaria to choose treatment effectively
Peek Retina will go to doctors, working to save the lives of children in coma caused by malaria, meningitis or other diseases in countries like Mali and Malawi. They will be able to see signs of the disease that appear at the back of the eye, and be able to check if there is brain swelling before deciding on what tests and treatments can most help.

Diagnosis can be done remotely

Medical images can be sent easily from Peek, so diagnosis can be done remotely. Specialist eye doctors can spend more time in hospitals carrying out treatment, rather than searching for people in need.

What stage is this at?

Extensive clinical and field trials have been completed over the last two years in Kenya, Botswana and Mali. We have further studies planned in the UK, Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya.

These trials not only scientifically validate the quality of images Peek provides in comparison studies, but make sure it works effectively in the context of specific locations, the local healthcare system and for both novice and expert users.

This research and development phase is now complete and we have now started the manufacturing process.

How will the funds from this campaign be used?

This campaign will help us to set up the industrial design and manufacturing process so that we can produce Peek Retina at scale.

To create precision tooling will cost in the region of £40,000. The overall cost of set up will be around £150,000. Costs will be finalised once the initial industrial design phase is complete. There will then be a unit cost for each individual adapter produced.

We are working with Wideblue, a leading manufacturing consultancy, and specialists in innovative optical engineering who will design and build Peek Retina with us.

Peek received an award from TED.com and Mazda and we are putting this towards the set up costs.

Our goal is to raise the remaining £70,000 to complete the manufacturing set up.

How long will it take to build?

Our timeline for manufacture and certification will have us shipping Peek Retina in 2016. We will keep you updated about progress and key milestones over the coming months.

What phones will it work with?

The adapter will fit on most common smartphones. We intend it to be universal, but there may be some very strange shapes that are not compatible, such as phones with very protruding camera optics. Common models from Apple (iPhone), Samsung, HTC and Sony should all be fine.

What about certification?

We are in the process of being certified for use within the European Union (CE Class 1) and all countries that follow guidelines of the UK Government’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Work toward the USA's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and certification is in progress.

Where else can we ship to?

We will be able to ship Peek Retina within the EU. Only EU shipping is included in the cost, backers will be required to pay for shipping outside of the EU.

We can accept donations from US citizens and organisations but we are unable to ship Peek Retina to addresses in the US until FDA approval has been granted. Although this is in progress, it could take two years or more.

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