John Sheila, Premila M, Javed Mohd, Vikas G, Wagholikar Amol
Department of Teleophthalmology, Medical Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India.
The Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO, Brisbane, Australia.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2015;214:139-45.
To inform about a very unique and first of its kind telehealth pilot study in India that has provided virtual telehealth consultation to eye care patients in low resource at remote villages.
Provision of Access to eye care services in remote population is always challenging due to pragmatic reasons. Advances in Telehealth technologies have provided an opportunity to improve access to remote population. However, current Telehealth technologies are limited to face-to-face video consultation only. We inform about a pilot study that illustrates real-time imaging access to ophthalmologists. Our innovative software led technology solution allowed screening of patients with varying ocular conditions.
Eye camps were conducted in 2 districts in South India over a 12-month period in 2014. Total of 196 eye camps were conducted. Total of 19,634 patients attended the eye camps. Innovative software was used to conduct consultation with the ophthalmologist located in the city hospital. The software enabled virtual visit and allowed instant sharing of fundus camera images for assessment and diagnosis.
About 71% of the patients were found to have Refractive Error problems, 15% of them were found to have cataract, 7% of the patients were diagnosed to have Retina problems and 7% of the patients were found to have other ocular diseases. The patients requiring cataract surgery were immediately transferred to city hospital for treatment. Software led assessment of fundus camera images assisted in identifying retinal eye diseases.
Our real-time virtual visit software assisted in specialist care provision and illustrated a novel tele health solution for low resource population.
介绍印度一项非常独特且首创的远程医疗试点研究，该研究为偏远村庄资源匮乏地区的眼科患者提供了虚拟远程医疗咨询服务。
由于实际原因，为偏远地区人群提供眼科护理服务一直具有挑战性。远程医疗技术的进步为改善偏远地区人群的医疗服务提供了机会。然而，目前的远程医疗技术仅限于面对面视频咨询。我们介绍一项试点研究，该研究展示了眼科医生的实时成像访问。我们创新的软件主导技术解决方案能够对不同眼部疾病的患者进行筛查。
2014年在印度南部的2个地区开展了为期12个月的眼科义诊活动。共举办了196场眼科义诊。共有19634名患者参加了眼科义诊。使用创新软件与城市医院的眼科医生进行会诊。该软件实现了虚拟就诊，并允许即时共享眼底相机图像以进行评估和诊断。
约71%的患者被发现有屈光不正问题，其中15%患有白内障，7%的患者被诊断患有视网膜疾病，7%的患者患有其他眼部疾病。需要进行白内障手术的患者立即被转至城市医院进行治疗。软件主导的眼底相机图像评估有助于识别视网膜眼部疾病。
我们的实时虚拟就诊软件有助于提供专科护理服务，并为资源匮乏人群展示了一种新型远程医疗解决方案。
