Unobtrusive monitoring system for adherence to glaucoma eye-drop treatment

Kalhor, Shiva 2022. Unobtrusive monitoring system for adherence to glaucoma eye-drop treatment. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

Preview	PDF (Thesis) - Accepted Post-Print Version Download (53MB) | Preview
	PDF (Cardiff University Electronic Publication Form) - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only Download (204kB)

Abstract

Glaucoma is the second most common cause of blindness and the leading cause of irreversible vision loss worldwide. Glaucoma is an eye condition that mostly occurs due to high intraocular pressure and requires immediate treatment. If not treated, it can lead to blindness. The main method to treat glaucoma involves reducing the pressure inside the eye. The available treatments for treating glaucoma include medications, laser procedures and incisional surgery. Treatment of glaucoma is greatly dependent on the type that a patient is experiencing. Though, eye drops are often the first treatment option when dealing with glaucoma. Should eye drops not work, then alternative surgical treatments can be used. The problem with glaucoma patients is that it’s difficult to determine whether treatment is failing because the eye drop is not an effective treatment for them or because they don’t adhere to their treatment. For assisting the clinician, this project will seek to build a possible solution that will address adherence and compliance issues leading the clinician to take more effective decisions for the patient and thus better-quality clinical outcomes. Currently a number of solutions exist to judge and evaluate effective compliance. These range from manual observations to some form of electronic monitoring that seek to establish how well the patient has been keeping track of their medication. This project and thesis will seek to review glaucoma as a medical disease and its impact upon society as a whole. It will also present a solution that will incorporate a paper-thin electronic wrap that would be situated on the bottle with a view to making this as inexpensive as possible. The electronic device or system will be capable of revealing more details to a clinician such as how often the device is used and when it will be squeezed. The next step of this thesis is to design a system to identify correct compliance among these patients. Overall, the outcome of this project resulted in the creation of an electronic monitoring device in the form of a flexible PCB which, given its software, is capable of noting down basic compliance metrics. None of this, however, confirms if the drop actually entered the eye. Advancing on this work, a system was built to accurately determine if a droplet entered the eye utilising vision technologies.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Engineering
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1). Electronic Monitoring 2). Flexible Battery 3). Flexible Sensor 4). Flexible PCB 5). Image Processing 6). Vision Technologies
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	7 July 2023
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2023 09:13
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/160848

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item