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Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

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Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#21

Post by Killakwinn »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #13

I love this. At least in the US, ophthalmology & dentistry seem ripe for disruption/improvement as they have some really strange rules yet 90% of people's interactions with them are very routine.

Completely agree, and I would attribute some of this to excellent marketing. Lately I've been thinking about how so much of our behavior and societal/cultural norms (e.g. bacon and eggs are breakfast food! drink milk to prevent your bones from crumbling into a million pieces!) all come down to brilliant longform marketing efforts.

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#22

Post by flanbiscuit »

trashface wrote: post #16

I'm a former programmer, now in mid forties, and recently diagnosed with low-tension glaucoma, so I appreciate the value in your service. I have no family history so I wonder if my long years of staring at screens had something to do with it, though I realize the causes are complex and not well understood. In my case it was caught reasonably early but I feel it could have been caught earlier. Its a bit surprising to…

What were your symptoms? or was this only noticed during an exam and you had not realized anything was going before the exam?

> and I also have to agree to not make a claim on my insurance to reimburse me, so its all out of pocket. Its pretty shady, but they are what my ophthalmologist wants me to use, and I don't want to mess around with blindness.

I'm not too familiar with the all the inner workings of insurances but curious why you had to do this?

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#23

Post by codegeek »

"unnecessary pupillary dilations and air puff tests (which by the way are wildly inaccurate,) "

How true is this ? I am not refuting this as I have no credentials in this space but as someone who is very near sighted, I depend on these exams to make me feel safe and I do them once every year as the doctors have suggested over the years. It is scary to know that they are wildly inaccurate.

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#24

Post by conqrr »

trashface wrote: post #16

I'm a former programmer, now in mid forties, and recently diagnosed with low-tension glaucoma, so I appreciate the value in your service. I have no family history so I wonder if my long years of staring at screens had something to do with it, though I realize the causes are complex and not well understood. In my case it was caught reasonably early but I feel it could have been caught earlier. Its a bit surprising to…

I was diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of 17 by a doctor. It was hard for me to comprehend that I'd have to take drops for the rest of my life. I do have pretty bad myopia and astigmatism. This was in the middle east. On doing a recheck back in India, I had a very comprehensive testing with multiple doctors checking for glaucoma and retinal damage and was told that while I'm a suspect, there's no reason for me to take drops. My IOP was calculated taking into account the diameter of the pupil (I think) and Goldman test which wasn't done previously. The doctors proceeded to explain that in the west, doctors are more likely to prescribe treatment for glaucoma because of all things around insurance etc. At minimum, I recommend getting a second opinion, if possible from a country that's not riddled with such insurance schemes.

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#25

Post by karaterobot »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #11
entee wrote: post #2

Just got a postcard from my optometrist the other day saying it’s time for my annual prescription check. My eyes are no different, but my glasses are scratched, so I need to spend an hour or two to get this fixed instead of just reordering glasses online. Can’t wait to use a service like this instead, much faster and easier, good luck!!

In the US at least, you can order glasses online as long as you know the prescription. It's contacts that require a 'valid' prescription which only lasts a year and they will only let you buy a 'years' worth of contacts at a time.

I'm in WA, and I have to upload a photo of my prescription to buy glasses from a popular online eyeglass vendor whose name rhymes with Warby Parker. My impression is that it's a state-by-state thing. In my opinion it's pretty silly require this for eyeglasses (contacts are a different matter).

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#26

Post by Killakwinn »

codegeek wrote: post #23

"unnecessary pupillary dilations and air puff tests (which by the way are wildly inaccurate,) " How true is this ? I am not refuting this as I have no credentials in this space but as someone who is very near sighted, I depend on these exams to make me feel safe and I do them once every year as the doctors have suggested over the years. It is scary to know that they are wildly inaccurate.

Good question. These statement applies to patients who have no to very minor eye issues, meaning healthy people under age 40 who have refractive errors of ~1D (ideally less,) who have never been diagnosed with eye disease, who have no family history of eye disease, and who have good vision (that they are happy with.) It sounds like you probably have a refractive error of >6D, in which case yearly dilated exams are good practice.

Re: inaccuracies, what I am referring to is the air puff test. The air puff test is a very crude measurement of eye pressure (aka intraocular pressure, or IOP.) The gold standard is Goldman Applanation, which involves putting yellow fluorescein drops in your eye and then using the applanation tip and a blue light to assess IOP.

More on Goldman Applanation here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2206330/

Hope this helps!

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#27

Post by Killakwinn »

trashface wrote: post #16

I'm a former programmer, now in mid forties, and recently diagnosed with low-tension glaucoma, so I appreciate the value in your service. I have no family history so I wonder if my long years of staring at screens had something to do with it, though I realize the causes are complex and not well understood. In my case it was caught reasonably early but I feel it could have been caught earlier. Its a bit surprising to…

Hi. Thank you for sharing your story. Vision is such a critical part of our daily lives, so receiving a diagnosis like this can be very painful.

Unfortunately, the only way to slow down the damage related to glaucoma is to lower eye pressure (IOP.) This is accomplished via medications, lasers, and surgery. Typically we start with the least invasive option, which is medications (aka eyedrops.) It sounds like you are receiving the standard of care, which is a good thing.

Re: cost of care, I think we can all agree that things need to change.

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#28

Post by Killakwinn »

conqrr wrote: post #24
trashface wrote: post #16

I'm a former programmer, now in mid forties, and recently diagnosed with low-tension glaucoma, so I appreciate the value in your service. I have no family history so I wonder if my long years of staring at screens had something to do with it, though I realize the causes are complex and not well understood. In my case it was caught reasonably early but I feel it could have been caught earlier. Its a bit surprising to…

I was diagnosed with glaucoma at the age of 17 by a doctor. It was hard for me to comprehend that I'd have to take drops for the rest of my life. I do have pretty bad myopia and astigmatism. This was in the middle east. On doing a recheck back in India, I had a very comprehensive testing with multiple doctors checking for glaucoma and retinal damage and was told that while I'm a suspect, there's no reason for me to t…

There are several difficulties when it comes to managing glaucoma: 1) There are different types of glaucoma that have different diagnostic criteria 2) Different people have different risk factors for glaucoma development, disease progression, and treatment response. What works for one person may be completely ineffective for another 3) Our glaucoma data (for diagnosis, progression, treatment) is largely based on a cohort of data gathered from Caucasian patients; researchers and clinician are generating population-specific (Blacks, Asians, etc,) data, but there's definitely still a long way to go 4) There is some subjectivity that goes into diagnosing/treating/monitoring glaucoma, which is why one doctor may decide to start you on drops while another may choose to observe without intervention -- in cases that are not clear cut, either approach may be correct

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#29

Post by jb1991 »

Interesting, I went through it, but then it got to this slide:

> look at the image of the circle at the top of the page.

And there is no circle whatsoever on that page, so I didn't know if it was a typo, a browser problem... or my eyes went blind!

Re: Launch HN: Quadrant Eye (YC W21) – Tackling online eye exams and at-home eyecare

#30

Post by LorenPechtel »

trashface wrote: post #16

I'm a former programmer, now in mid forties, and recently diagnosed with low-tension glaucoma, so I appreciate the value in your service. I have no family history so I wonder if my long years of staring at screens had something to do with it, though I realize the causes are complex and not well understood. In my case it was caught reasonably early but I feel it could have been caught earlier. Its a bit surprising to…

Not wanting you to make an insurance claim sounds very shady indeed. As in being ripped off.
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