Region: Europe/Africa
Date/time
Wednesday 26th March 2025 at 0700 CDT (US Central) / 0800 EDT (US East Coast) / 1200 GMT (UK) / 1300 CET (Central Europe) / 1730 IST (India) / 2000 (China / Western Australia).
Chaired by Rasha S. Moustafa, Tampere University & University of Eastern Finland, Finland.
Agenda
- Welcome
- Thank you for joining as we continue our work on developing this society. Your contributions are invaluable, and we look forward to a productive discussion.
- Survey Results: Review and discussion (Gemma Arblaster).
- – Prioritization of Standards: Deciding which standards to develop first.
- – Subcommittee Recruitment: Initiating the recruitment process for subcommittees responsible for developing the first standard (required expertise will depend on the specific standard).
- – ISCET’s Approach to Standard Development: Confirming that the first standard will be fully developed before proceeding with others, to refine the process.
- Integration of Eye Tracking into Routine Clinical Practice: Discussion on the practicalities of wider adoption (Matt J Dunn)
- Any other business
Meeting recording
Attendees
26 people attended the meeting.
Notes
• This meeting marked two years since ISECT’s foundational session (March 1, 2023), acknowledging key milestones, and reflecting on progress and priorities.
• Due to time constraints, only one of the two scheduled agenda items was addressed. The second topic — Integration of Eye Tracking into Routine Clinical Practice (Matt Dunn) — will be covered in a future meeting.
• The meeting focused entirely on the findings from ISCET’s survey of Eye Tracking in Clinical Practice–Current Use and Applications, delivered by Gemma Arblaster (Orthoptist, Sheffield, UK) and survey subcommittee.
➤ Link to the survey discussed
Survey Overview
• Conducted with ethical approval from the University of Sheffield.
• Total of 123 responses (44 full completions; others partial).
• Respondents included clinicians (ophthalmology, orthoptics, optometry, audiologists, neurologists), and manufacturers.
• Aim: to assess current clinical eye tracking use and determine the need for guidelines.
Key Findings:
- Widespread agreement on the lack of clinical guidelines.
- Current practice often relies on research literature or manufacturer protocols.
- High demand for standardized procedures, calibration procedures, and interpretation guidance.
- Manufacturers esponses varied regarding support, device limitations, and regulatory approval.
Themes from Survey Feedback
- Technical: Need for standardized setup, calibration, normative data and handling of variable patient conditions, highlighting low vision and nystagmus.
- Analytical: Gaps in interpretation practices, pediatric-specific guidance, and managing atypical cases.
- Clinical: Emphasis on protocols for core eye movements’ testing (e.g. saccades); with strong interest in nystagmus and cranial nerve palsies and neurological conditions.
Some Contributions and Discussion:
• Rasha noted that the survey findings mirrored ISECT’s original aims, affirming that the identified gaps matched ISECT’s founding goals and mission. It was reassuring to find low vision mentioned in the responses and proposed the inclusion of low vision as a “clinical challenge” alongside nystagmus. She proposed developing both general guidelines (e.g. calibration, setup) and specific protocols (e.g. condition- or test-based) in parallel, to support the needs of both novice and experienced clinicians, and recommended reviewing existing resources for and possibly introduce a “resource tab” to compile them. She questioned whether the current capacity supports parallel subcommittees.
• Matt expressed surprise at how closely the survey results aligned with what ISCET had presumed and announced. He noted the prominence of nystagmus in responses as well as eye movements like saccades, without tying them to specific conditions. He recommended starting with a single pilot standard—either general or condition-specific—to refine the development process before expanding.
• Ruth outlined the ISCEV (International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision) model:
• Standards – Minimum required procedures.
• Extended Protocols – Additional tests/steps for specific clinical cases.
• Guidelines – Broad support materials (e.g., stimulus, calibration and test selection).
She endorsed summarizing the findings and discussions from all regional meetings as a consensus, noting the survey can be submitted for peer-reviewed publication.
• Rasha and Gemma confirmed that publication of survey findings had been previously agreed and would contribute to SECT’s academic outputs and serve as a foundational reference.
• John raised concerns regarding normative databases development due to significant variability in device performance and lack of clinical certification for many eye trackers.
• Matt stressed the need for standardized testing protocols before collecting or comparing normative data across devices.
• Andreas endorsed a collaborative open-access normative database, provided contributors document detailed setup and protocols.
• Gemma supported the approach and noted a similar model used in perimetry, where shared data is feasible when procedures are aligned.
• Larry advised caution regarding AI-based eye tracking systems (e.g., Pupil Labs Neon), noting that some are not designed to handle abnormal eye movements. He warned that users might rely heavily on non-transparent AI-generated results without examining raw data for clinical interpretation. He recommended that future standards promote transparency and clinical reliability in AI-driven systems, especially in diagnostic use.
• Further suggestions included defining minimum hardware requirements (e.g. sampling rate, tracking method) to improve compatibility and data reliability across platforms.
Proposed Next Steps and Suggested Action Points
• Gemma will Prepare a formal document summarizing survey results and meeting discussions together with the survey subcommittee.
• Feedback from upcoming regional meetings will continue to be gathered to reach consensus on priorities.
• Decision pending on whether to begin with a general guideline (e.g. setup, calibration) or a specific one (e.g. saccades, nystagmus)—one suggestion was to have two subcommittees working in parallel.
• Discussion to continue on structuring future standards around clinical conditions, test types, or both.
• Develop ethical and technical frameworks for data sharing and eye tracker specifications.
• Evaluate feasibility and structure of a global normative database supported by defined protocols.
Please let me know if you would like to add to or clarify any of the points mentioned above.
Rasha
Next meeting
The next meeting will be held in The Americas region in approximately a month. Details will be announced on the website and mailing list.
Chat
13:58:49 From Bonny LO, HKE APORT(Orth) : Yes, I hear you
13:59:16 From Rasha Moustafa : Thanks for letting me know!
14:02:03 From Fireflies.ai Notetaker Bård : View real-time notes and transcription for this meeting here: https://app.fireflies.ai/live/01JQ4KWWW56NK0AG21RTH14WT8?ref=live_chat
14:03:13 From Matt J Dunn : Website: https://clinicaleyetracking.org
14:06:10 From Fireflies.ai Notetaker Souhad : View real-time notes and transcription for this meeting here: https://app.fireflies.ai/live/01JQ95EQ10WXF324Y6JQWT3VXK?ref=live_chat
14:42:30 From Matt J Dunn : https://opi.lei.org.au/interface.html
14:42:43 From Arzu Çöltekin : Hi everyone, sorry what was the name of the company Andreas just mentioned?
14:43:19 From Rasha Moustafa : Replying to “Hi everyone, sorry w…”
Eye brain in France , but he mentioned it no longer exists
14:43:34 From Arzu Çöltekin : Replying to “Hi everyone, sorry w…”
Thanks Rasha!
14:51:00 From Matt J Dunn : https://clinicaleyetracking.org/meetings/
14:51:57 From Ruth Hamilton : The Global Lung Function Initiative (GLI) Network: bringing the world’s respiratory reference values together – UCL Discovery
14:52:57 From Ruth Hamilton : https://gli-calculator.ersnet.org/
Sharing these links to illustrate the power of collective reference data
14:53:04 From Andreas Sprenger : Replying to “Hi everyone, sorry w…”
There is a successing company called Suricog (https://www.suricog.fr/en/)
14:53:46 From Gemma Arblaster : https://www.optocom.es/opi/
14:54:20 From Rik Eshuis : Our chief marketing officer (Bulbitech) has a question for the group. Do 1 or 2 of the available experts want to volunteer to review our upcoming White Paper: The Classical Eye-Tracking Approach of Bulbitech? Please contact me if so: rik@bulbitech.com
14:56:55 From Arzu Çöltekin : Reacted to “There is a successin…” with 🙏
14:59:46 From Matt J Dunn : @Rasha Moustafa : I’m happy we can roll forward the discussion I was going to lead on “Integration of Eye Tracking into Clinical Practice” into the next meeting
15:01:19 From Larry Abel : It’s now Thursday, so I’m off. Bye, all!
15:01:46 From Jonathan Erichsen : Apologies but have to attend another meeting. Very helpful discussion.
15:05:42 From Arzu Çöltekin : Sounds great, thank you Gemma!