New app identifying jaundice from babies' eyes 'could save lives'

Newborns in low and middle-income countries are usually at greater risk of severe jaundice because the countries lack the resources required for screening. — dpa

LONDON: A smartphone app that can identify severe jaundice in newborn babies by scanning their eyes could help save lives in poorer parts of the world, a new study suggests.

In the study – co-authored by researchers at University College London (UCL) and the University of Ghana – an app called neoSCB was used to scan the eyes of more than 300 newborns in Ghana, following an initial pilot study on 37 newborns in 2020.