Abstract:
A smartphone app to screen for neonatal jaundice has a large
potential impact in reducing neonatal death and disability.
Our app, neoSCB, uses a colour measurement of the sclera
to make a screening decision. Although there are numerous
benefits of a smartphone-based approach, smartphone colour
measurement that is accurate and repeatable is a challenge.
Using data from a clinical setting in Ghana, we compare
sclera colour measurement using an ambient subtraction
method to sclera colour measurement using a standard colour
card method, and find they are comparable provided the subtracted
signal-to-noise ratio (SSNR) is sufficient. Calculating
a screening decision metric via the colour card method gave
100% sensitivity and 69% specificity (n=87), while applying
the ambient subtraction method gave 100% sensitivity and
78% specificity (SSNR>3.5; n=50).
