Smartphone Assisted Slit Lamp Free Anterior Segment Imaging: A novel technique in teleophthalmology.

With the invent of smartphones with high-tech modalities and their easy access to the internet facilities and development of social networks with the ability to share images in a distinct group of related users for rapid distribution of information and getting their comments and manufacture of high resolution cameras on them a great revolution in telemedicine for photo-documentation and expert consultation has been emerged. Photo-slit images has been widely used for documentation of anterior segment pathologies for preparing power point files for training residents, conferences, symposiums, publishing scientific papers and academic books. However, not all slit lamps are equipped with image recording instruments and there is not any available slit lamps in rural areas in developing countries and in emergency situations. Therefore, applying an alternative feasible modality for photo-documentation of the anterior segment and sharing them with experts for casebased decision making is appreciated. The adoption of the smart phones allows health care practitioners and even patients themselves to easily prepare photographs and videos of the eye records when slit lamp is not available [1–5]. Although the slit lamp images are more informative, this setting with slit lamp free smartphone assisted images are designed for situations that photodocumentation with slit lamp is not available especially in rural areas in developing countries. Herein, we introduce a user-friendly technique to simplify the eye anterior segment image capture with a smartphone that does not require slit lamp or specialized training. An i-phone 6 with ios operating agent (Apple company, California, USA) was used for imaging. The camera was approximated to the eye as close as the brightest and most clear feasible image is formed on the LED display of the smartphone. A photo without additional lens (Fig. 1) and then a photo with a 10 Diopter macrolens (Fig. 2) held on the center of the camera lens were obtained from the eye. Then, a 90 Diopter Volk (Volk Optical, Inc., Mentor, OH, USA) non-contact slit lamp double aspheric lens was held by the other hand of the operator on the center of the lens of smartphone camera) (Fig. 3). Alternatively,any smart phone with