Wearable health devices for pediatric ophthalmology

Naira Ikram; Nimesh A Patel; Joseph C Kvedar

doi:10.1038/s41746-025-01718-8

Wearable health devices for pediatric ophthalmology

NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Jun 12;8(1):354. doi: 10.1038/s41746-025-01718-8.

Authors

Naira Ikram¹, Nimesh A Patel^{2

3}, Joseph C Kvedar⁴

Affiliations

¹ Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. nairaikram@hms.harvard.edu.
² Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

The shortage of pediatric ophthalmologists presents an opportunity to leverage existing tools and re-imagine care delivery to support this patient population. By directly interfacing with the eye, wearable health devices provide a localized and potentially more accurate assessment of certain eye conditions. In addition to early detection, wearable health-based devices (wearables) can enable data collection over time and serve as adjuvant treatment to the standard clinic- or surgical-based solutions. We highlight some innovations in wearables targeted for common categories of pediatric eye disease: refractive errors, strabismus, dry eye disease, and glaucoma. In addition to integrating preventive medicine with ophthalmology, wearables generate data that can be funneled into addressing research questions and refining device development.

Publication types

Review