The COVID-19 pandemic has led to greater comfortableness with robotic telepresence successful oculus screenings.
Reviewed by Priya Tailor, BA
Telemedicine came into its ain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic successful 2019, astir 43% of aesculapian centers successful the United states were susceptible of telemedicine use, successful opposition to 95% that reported usage successful 2020.
New probe indicates that this script has resulted successful greater diligent acceptance of robotic telepresence (RT; Double Robotics), a mobile videoconferencing tool, during ocular examinations. In turn, this facilitates the continued usage of specified modalities to amended diligent entree to attraction successful communities wherever attraction whitethorn beryllium minimal, according to pb survey writer Priya Tailor, BA, and colleagues from the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science astatine Rutgers New Jersey Medical School successful Newark.
“RT successful peculiar has proven utile successful diligent triage and tin amended wellness attraction access,” the investigators said. In airy of the accelerated acceptance of this benignant of examination, Tailor and colleagues conducted a survey to place changes successful patients’ attitudes toward doc teleconsultations utilizing RT during vision-threatening illness screenings earlier and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Testing the waters
RT was implemented successful a community-based oculus screening protocol earlier and aft the emergence of the pandemic. Twenty-five subjects were included from July to October 2019 (mean age, 32 years; 44% women) and 40 subjects from June to October 2021 (mean age, 56 years; 55% women).
Screening volunteers measured humor pressure, ocular acuity, and intraocular unit and obtained 45° nonmydriatic retinal images and optical coherence tomography B-scans. The scans were reviewed by an off-site glaucoma oregon retina subspecialist utilizing either distant desktop bundle oregon cloud-based software. The subjects aboriginal interacted with a specializer via RT and completed a 5-point survey connected their consultation, Tailor explained.
The diligent experience
The investigators recovered that the mean diligent comfortableness level with RT accrued importantly (P = .038) during the pandemic. The mean values during the 2 periods of clip were 4.48 earlier and 4.80 during the pandemic; determination was a 22.5% summation successful the proportionality of subjects reporting 5/5 comfort.
Subject property appeared to beryllium a applicable origin successful the effect to the usage of RT. “Older individuals were little apt to study higher comfortableness earlier the pandemic (odds ratio [OR], 0.903; P = .014) and much apt during the pandemic (OR, 1.075; P = .023). No important quality successful comfortableness betwixt genders was seen successful either radical (P > .7).
“With telemedicine continuing to grow successful wellness care, our results are highly applicable and exciting,” Tailor said. “After the pandemic, adjacent among those individuals [who] reported penchant for the in-person consult, the mean comfortableness standing was 4.68/5.”
This indicates suitability for continued usage successful assemblage screenings, Tailor explained. “It further paves the mode for semipermanent telemedicine usage by wellness attraction centers and further studies connected [the use] of telepresence successful triage, ophthalmology session operations, and aesculapian education,” she said.
“To our knowledge, this survey is the archetypal to comparison subjects’ attitudes toward a real-time telemedicine involution earlier and aft the pandemic,” the authors said. “We demonstrated that COVID-19 has led to greater comfortableness with RT successful oculus screenings. Telemedicine should proceed to beryllium implemented successful aesculapian centers and assemblage screenings agelong beyond the existent pandemic, arsenic it is an fantabulous avenue for connecting distant and underserved communities with invaluable subspecialty care.”
Priya Tailor, BA
Tailor has nary fiscal disclosures related to this content.
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