Peek Vision: How a Smartphone App Is Solving Preventable Blindness in Africa and Asia

What is the problem?

There are over 1.1 billion individuals living with vision loss worldwide, and much of this visual impairment is preventable. About 90% of these individuals live in Africa and Asia. About 90% of cases of visual loss are either preventable or treatable with simple interventions such as corrective lenses and cataract surgery. Yet millions continue to lose their sight because health care systems fail to identify these cases.

In rural areas of Kenya, Pakistan, or Zimbabwe, one ophthalmologist may serve one million people. Eye screening equipment is costly and not easily portable. Even when screening takes place, it is difficult for patients to attend a second visit, during which they receive the actual treatment. This is a healthcare problem with a paradox at its core. The necessary medical knowledge exists, but the necessary medical manpower is lacking.

Peek Vision eye screening mobile app

What is the solution?

Peek Vision developed a software and data intelligence platform that turns any mobile phone into a clinically proven eye-screening instrument. Community health workers, teachers, and non-expert staff screen vision using the Peek application on any phone, whether in a remote village or a school compound.

The system captures outcomes in a cloud-based data platform, automatically refers patients who require treatment, and even sends reminder messages to prompt patients to attend appointments. Program managers can see real-time data on where patients are lost in the process and take steps to ensure that they don’t fall through the cracks.

The innovation does not replace ophthalmologists. Instead, it replaces paperwork, speculation, and location-based barriers that preclude patients from receiving care from an ophthalmologist.

What is the business model?

Peek Vision Ltd operates as a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by the Peek Vision Foundation, a registered charity in the UK. Revenue is generated through software licensing payments from NGOs, government departments, and hospitals that use the platform, as well as grants and philanthropic funding. All profits are reinvested in the business.

The business model differs from traditional social enterprise models, in which a social enterprise is backed by a venture capital firm and earns income by selling products directly to end users. Peek Vision does not sell products to individuals or operate clinics. Instead, Peek Vision serves as the operating system for existing eye care projects run by governments and NGOs, and earns revenue by improving their efficiency.

Who founded Peek Vision?

Andrew Bastawrous, Co-Founder of Peek Vision

Andrew Bastawrous, an ophthalmologist from the London School of Hygiene, co-founded Peek Vision in 2013. In 2015, Peek Vision became a social enterprise and, in 2016, transferred to the Peek Vision Foundation. The headquarters are in the UK and Botswana, with a subsidiary in Nigeria.

Why is it innovative?

There are three distinct characteristics of Peek Vision that few other eye health organizations share. 

1. First, Peek Vision’s screening application is clinically validated. The results provided by the mobile app meet the accuracy standards doctors use in real-world medical decisions. It turns a smartphone into more than a consumer application.
   

2. Second, for Peek, data is the product. Program managers can track in real-time where referrals go unserviced and which villages lack services. Eye health transitions from a series of independent camps into a managed process.
   

3. Third, Peek Vision is developing financial innovations in addition to technological ones. Their “See Now Pay Later” program in Uganda works with Opportunity Bank Uganda. Patients' incomes increase after cataract surgery, usually exceeding the costs of the procedure itself. Under the “See Now Pay Later” program, the patient can receive treatment and pay it back over 12-18 months, with the hospital prepaid.
   

What is the impact?

Based on Peek Vision's 2025 annual report:

• Peek operates in 12 countries across Africa and Asia

• Peek Vision has screened more than 18 million people since 2018

• Over 1.7 million people have been connected to care they would not otherwise have received

• A comparative study reported that programs using Peek Vision screened 2.5 times more people and connected 16 times more people to care at six times lower cost per patient than non-Peek programs

• Kenya's Vision Impact Project, which uses Peek, screened 1 million people in its first year and now reaches over 150,000 people connected to eye care services in 10 counties

• Botswana became the first country to commit to using Peek for a nationwide government-funded program to screen every schoolchild and teacher
  

Cataract detection using Peek Vision app

What needs to improve?

First, Peek Vision's main challenge is not adoption. It is capacity. In many countries where Peek operates, the health system screens more people than it can treat. Peek's technology can flag one million patients who need cataract surgery, but if a country has one ophthalmologist per million people, those patients still wait years for treatment. 

The second challenge facing Peek is data governance. As Peek expands, it stores sensitive medical data for millions of low-income patients across dozens of jurisdictions. Maintaining trust with governments, partners, and patients depends on strong data protection standards that will only become more complex as the platform grows.

Lastly, the demand for services is high. According to forecasts, the number of people affected by vision loss worldwide will nearly double by 2050, reaching 1.8 billion. Even if Peek continues to grow, the problem will still outpace any one organization's ability to handle it.

Sources:

Peek Vision Foundation

Our Impact - Peek Vision

Annual Reviews - Peek Vision

Kenya’s Vision Impact Project reaches one million people in its first year

Smartphone technology for innovative targeted treatment of poor vision and blindness

Software And Data Intelligence Platform For Eye Health

How Peek Vision Went From A Rural Kenyan Clinic To Over 20 Million People Screened

Expanding Eye Health With Peek Vision

Peek Vision connects one million to eye care