Abstract:

Introduction:
Corneal topography is a technique that analyzes the geometry of the cornea. It is used to detect ocular pathologies, fit contact lenses, and assist in refractive surgery. Learning the interpretation of corneal topographies is a complex task and highly depends on the availability of data from real subjects. The aim of this study was to develop an interactive simulator of corneal topography and evaluate its implementation as a learning tool for university students.

Methods:
The development of the interactive simulator of corneal topography was divided into two parts. First, we generated images that simulated corneal topographies, covering the ranges of normal corneas, by using trigonometric formulas and RStudio. And second, we created a platform that enables interaction between the user and the visualization through buttons and slider bars. This functionality allows users to select the corneal radius, toricity, astigmatism axis, eccentricity, and scale type (absolute or relative) for each simulated corneal topography. The final version was made available to all third-year students at the Optometry degree of the University of Valladolid (30 students). Finally, an anonymous survey was conducted, composed of 8 questions with the Likert scale (from 1, “totally disagree”, to 5, “totally agree”) and 1 yes/no question. The questions involved the intuitiveness, concept and interpretation understanding, utility, satisfaction, and recommendation for future use.

Results:
From the 30 students (8 males and 22 females, with a mean age of 21.1±1.0 years), 25 students anonymously answered the survey. The Likert type question with the lowest score was “The simulator has helped me correct some misunderstanding errors in concepts that I thought I had understood”, whose median and interquartile range was 3.0 [3.0-4.0]; the question with the highest score was “The simulator is a useful learning tool to complement the rest of the tools used in class”, whose result was 5.0 [4.0-5.0]; and the 6 remaining Likert type questions obtained the same result, 4.0 [4.0-5.0]. The 25 students answered “yes” to recommending the use of the simulator for future students.

Conclusions:
The developed interactive simulator of corneal topography is a valuable tool for teaching corneal topography within university specialties, such as Optometry and Ophthalmology. The positive feedback from the Optometry students, highlighting their positive experiences at all levels, strongly supports its implementation as a learning tool.

Keywords:

Simulator, cornea, topography.