– Featured in Review of Optometry, April 2012
– “#1 Must Have Optometry App for 2012”, optometrystudents.com
***NOTE: Your device must have a compass (supported devices: iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone4, iPad, iPad 2)***
The Parks 3 Step App is a 21st century approach to an essential tool relied upon by all eye care professionals (Ophthalmologists, Optometrists, and students).?? Utilizing your device’s built-in gyroscope and accelerometer, the Parks 3 Step App will be able to predict the underacting extraocular muscle in two flicks of the wrist.
Step 1: hold your device vertically in front of you. The device’s screen simulates your patient’s face from the doctor’s perspective, with the home button being their chin, and the volume button being their right ear. Press either OD or OS on the screen to indicate which eye is more hypertropic in primary gaze.
Step 2: While keeping the device in the vertical direction, turn it either to the left or right to simulate your patient’s head turn that makes the hypertropia worse. Remember, the device’s screen simulates your patients face, so a right head turn (left gaze) would be indicated by a slight rotation of the device around it’s vertical axis, with the volume button (Patient’s right ear) being turned away from the doctor. Once the device is in the proper orientation, press enter.
Step 3: Tilt the device either clockwise or counter-clockwise to simulate the head tilt that makes the hypertropia worse. A right head tilt would be simulated by tilting the device towards the volume button. Press enter.??The App will then present on screen what extraocular muscle is underacting.
This is a very quick and accurate way of performing the Parks Three Step test without hand-drawing time consuming and confusing diagrams.