VisionBound wins Rep. Byron Donalds’ 2022 Congressional App Challenge in Florida’s 19th District

When asked what inspired the creation of VisionBound, the students said, ”Diabetic retinopathy is a complication caused by an existing history of diabetes/diabetic symptoms that can slowly deteriorate a person’s vision and can even lead to partial blindness. Often this diabetic complication can be treated by timely management of the condition and/or modern laser eye treatments/surgery. However, this treatment of diabetic retinopathy cannot completely cure the disease and, when left untreated, its effects seemingly take on worse results. These severe cases are often seen in developing nations where general access to medical testing is bleak with most patients unsure of their severity until physical implications become apparent. In fact, 79% of the adults with diabetes reside within low-to-middle income nations and serve a major risk of joining the estimated 93 million people worldwide suffering from diabetic retinopathy.  Without significant medical testing, which can often prove expensive, and local ophthalmologists, this population is the most at risk of developing blindness and suffering the consequences of vision imparity. In this sense, the recent development of low-cost neural networks as a means of detecting early stages of diabetic retinopathy has become a much-needed solution to centuries of unknown suffering as a result of this complication.”