Abstract
Introduction Well-documented worldwide, the shortage of paediatric ophthalmologists has necessitated technological solutions to meet the demand of the subspecialty.
Aims We hope to demonstrate the successful trial of paediatric ophthalmology clinics run by a registrar with virtual remote supervision by a consultant paediatric ophthalmologist.
Methods Thirty paediatric patients were included in this study, each examined by the registrar with supervision from the consultant ophthalmologist. In order to accomplish this, a panoptic ophthalmoscope with a smartphone adapter was used. This device permits the examination of the anterior segment with white and cobalt blue illumination, as well as posterior segment examination with a 25-degree field of view in a dilated pupil. A smartphone was connected to this device and using a mobile application, the smartphone became the video input to teleconferencing software. This allowed the consultant to easily observe live footage of the ophthalmic examination. Patient satisfaction was then assessed by anonymous survey.
Results Real-time high quality video transmission allowed consultations to be performed and diagnoses made by the registrar, with involvement of the supervising consultant. 100% of the patients or their parents/guardians were satisfied with the part-virtual nature of consultation, and felt happy to be assessed in this way.
Conclusion We demonstrate the utility of portable technology to enhance paediatric ophthalmology clinics, allowing a remote consultant the ability to comprehensively examine and diagnose a number of ocular pathologies. We envisage this technology to be beneficial when obtaining a specialist opinion, when a paediatric ophthalmologist is not available onsite, or potentially also outside of normal working hours.
