i-chart SOFTWARE ONLY

I recently installed the i-chart in my examination room and I'm very impressed. Having an bright, crisp LCD letter chart is a vast improvement on the previous internally illuminated chart I was using.
There are no more bulbs to replace and no more reaching up to indicate what part of the chart I want the patient to read. Best of all, it has far greater contrast than the projector charts in the other rooms, which makes for good subjective end-points when refracting. Another nice feature is the low-contrast button which makes it easy to test that aspect of vision on a regular basis. I'm considering changing my exam form to include a box for recording low-contrast vision.

You can chose to display the letters randomly and keep changing them with a click, which we all know is useful in some situations. With a little effort, you can even customize the main letter charts if you prefer a certain combination, but I think the default letters and progression of sizes is fine. One colleague wondered why there weren't more 6/6 lines of letters - then I showed them the random letter feature and they saw the light. The chart also has the ability to display letters, tumbling E or C, symbols, single columns, and even has a fan & block target for the purists out there.

I prefer to use round targets for JCC testing, and the i-chart allows me to increase and decrease the size of the rings (or dots, you can pick) so that the target is the best for a given patient's acuity and perception of change. I think this is much better than just using the most round 6/18 letter available if the dots are too small. All the non-letter targets can be resized - which can be more useful than you might think, and when you next come back to that target it is still the same size you left it.

The combination of either mouse controls or keypad controls is intuitive to use and all the main chart changes just the tap of the remote control away. Similar charts I have seen use an expensive remote that has to be kept on the charger when not in use, whereas the i-chart makes clever use of existing wireless USB keypads (or a wireless mouse) to let you put the controls where you want. I find already find that I'm just reaching for whichever control is closest to my hand at the time. If you can position your primary computer screen in front of you while you are refracting, then you don't even need to look up to see if the patient is reading the letters correctly - they are displayed on the i-chart window on your screen.

I think that the i-chart is a very clever piece of software, and it can be installed with minimal effort. It took about 1/2 an hour to mount the second monitor on the wall with a bracket from an electronics retailer, and about 5 minutes to install the software, and all we had to do then was activate the second monitor through the Windows Display Control panel. We had our IT service come through and install the dual video card with a DVI output for us, but if you have a little technical knowledge this isn't hard to do. We chose to use DVI cables as they needed to be 5 meters long to reach from where the computer currently is to the second screen.

And lastly, it's easy to calibrate - you simply measure the length of you room, adjust the sliding scale to match, and then check the output on the screen with a ruler - the i-chart tells you how big the letters should be and you can adjust the letters to account for different monitor sizes. No more 'easy rooms' vs 'hard rooms' - the vision measured in one room will be the same as another.

If you already have a computerized practice, but are still fighting with a twentieth century projector or wall chart this is a simple and cost-effective way to upgrade your examination rooms and impress your clients.

- Nick Mathew, BOptom, Cert Oc Pharm (TPA)