{"id":16108,"date":"2015-02-26T16:57:33","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T16:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baylorproud.wpengine.com\/?p=16108"},"modified":"2015-02-26T16:57:33","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T16:57:33","slug":"professors-app-helps-parents-detect-eye-disease-in-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2015\/02\/professors-app-helps-parents-detect-eye-disease-in-babies\/","title":{"rendered":"Professors’ app helps parents detect eye disease in babies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CRADLE<\/p>\n

Most new parents take hundreds of pictures of their newborns. Thanks to a pair of Baylor professors, those photos can now be used to screen for pediatric eye cancer — a simple act that could\u00a0save the eyesight (and maybe even the lives) of children before it’s too late.<\/p>\n

Baylor chemistry professor Bryan Shaw and computer science professor Greg Hamerly joined forces to create CRADLE<\/a> (ComputeR Assisted Detector of LEukocoria), a free app launched in October that scans baby photos for signs of retinoblastoma (a rare eye disease that is nonetheless the most common form of eye cancer in children up to the age of five) and other eye diseases.<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD the free CRADLE app for iOS<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

You may remember Shaw’s story<\/a>:\u00a0When his son, Noah,\u00a0was three months old, he\u00a0was diagnosed with retinoblastoma. But looking back, the signs had been visible; the Shaws just didn’t know what\u00a0they could have been looking for.\u00a0Photos of Noah at just 12 days old show white pupils, a symptom called leukocoria, which is similar to \u201cred eye\u201d in a photo, only white. The white reflection was caused by the camera flash reflecting off tumors hidden behind both of Noah\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

The good news is that Noah is now a healthy six-year-old. But the retinoblastoma claimed his right eye, which was removed to keep the cancer from spreading. While thankful for his son\u2019s health, Shaw couldn\u2019t help but wonder if Noah\u2019s disease could have been caught sooner with software designed to spot it.<\/p>\n

[LISTEN to NPR’s “Morning Edition” report on Shaw, Hamerly and the app<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a chemistry professor, however, app development was not Shaw\u2019s area of expertise. That’s where\u00a0Hamerly comes in; together, they developed CRADLE, an app that uses photos parents would be taking anyway to help catch the\u00a0disease. CRADLE scans baby photos on mobile devices and tablets for signs of disease, allowing parents to contact their doctor and act quickly if signs of cancer appear. While not every case of \u201cwhite eye\u201d in photos is cancerous, detecting it in photos as early as possible alerts parents to the possibility, so they can in turn alert their doctor as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

Taking photos on your mobile device to share with others is so common, why not use those baby photos to heal as well? Shaw hopes that CRADLE will save vision and even lives in a convenient and accessible way — and help families avoid some of the uncertainty and fear that they felt when their infant son was battling the disease.<\/p>\n

Sic \u2019em, Drs.\u00a0Shaw and Hamerly!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most new parents take hundreds of pictures of their newborns. Thanks to a pair of Baylor professors, those photos can now be used to screen for pediatric eye cancer — a simple act that could\u00a0save the eyesight (and maybe even the lives) of children before it’s too late. Baylor chemistry professor Bryan Shaw and computer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}