Make use of new age tele-ophthalmology platforms for undeterred eye care delivery

We look around and see a lot of work is happening in fight against avoidable blindness and gradually we are witnessing the changes too. But the chimera of avoidable blindness still looks huge not only because of the infrastructural dearth, we even fall short of ophthalmologists, trained technicians and other eye healthcare workers, who are mostly clustered in urban areas.

A study conducted by International Council of Ophthalmologists (ICO) suggests that worldwide there are around 210000 ophthalmologists against 285 million affected population and 7.5 billion total world population.

While the sufficient army of Ophthalmologists and other health technicians get ready after the long and arduous process of education and training, problem of avoidable blindness should not be left multiplying. Solution lay in doing more with less. Integrating automation with already existing eye care program is proving to be an effective way in screening patients with different eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, age related macular degeneration, glaucoma and cataract.

An exemplary Tele-ophthalmology module powered by Pellucid Screen is already functional in Singapore, where national eye screening program is defined in such a way that it covers the entire population in the most standardized way.

Pellucid Screen with its cloud based technology empowers primary healthcare centers at distributing the appropriate referrals to secondary and tertiary level eye care centers which in turn alleviates the pressure from eye care specialists and gets patient more focused and timely treatment.

Work flow is simple, penetrative and responsive.

• Patients visit primary health care centers where retinal images are captured and case sheets are prepared.
• Case sheets and images are then transmitted to imaging laboratory on a secured web based platform.
• Images are graded by a centralized team of trained and accredited technicians who are trained to screen patients for most of the eye diseases. Complex cases are escalated to an ophthalmologist on the platform.
• Reports are generated and transmitted within one hour.
• Just in an hour’s time patients have their reports in hand and are counseled for appropriate treatment.

Pellucid Healthcare Networks specializes in evolving tele-ophthalmology platforms as per the demographic and territorial needs. There are endless possibilities to improve the quality, access, and affordability of eye health care. tele-ophthalmology surpasses the need for super specialists to be physically present at any one location and also alleviates restriction of care in remote areas.