ATLANTA — When more than 6,000 north Georgians took a simple vision test using EyeSite, a self-service vision screening kiosk, inside a Wal-Mart store in Cumming, Ga., earlier this spring, the results showed that 30 percent of the participants had never visited an eye care professional for an examination. In addition, 80 percent of the people who used the kiosk were recommended to see an eye care provider, according to a news release.
These statistics come as no surprise to Jenny Pomeroy, chief executive of Prevent Blindness Georgia. PBGAs mission is to double the number of Georgians who seek regular eye exams by the year 2020.
"We know that people go to the dentist three to four times more often than they get an eye examination," said Pomeroy. "The concept of an EyeSite kiosk is a wonderful vehicle to deliver eye health messages to the public, such as information about glaucoma and for reminding diabetic patients that they need an annual dilated eye exam."
The EyeSite kiosk is the brainchild of Atlanta entrepreneur Bart Foster. His start-up company, SoloHealth, is in the early stages of testing the self-service vision screening device in several markets. SoloHealth plans to launch its kiosks in high traffic retail locations, such as Wal-Mart stores.
