Impact of a Patient Portal-Based Telehealth Outreach Program on Recall of Patients with Diabetic Retinopathy.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a patient portal telehealth outreach program to return patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) lost to follow-up (LTFU) for eye care. Patients with DR receiving intravitreal injection (IVI) therapy who were >90 days beyond recommended return were deemed LTFU. Outreach messages were sent via a patient portal, when available, or through the U.

Factors associated with loss to follow-up in patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration: A telehealth recall initiative.

Introduction: Patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) frequently experience loss to follow-up (LTFU), heightening the risk of vision loss from treatment delays. This study aimed to identify factors contributing to LTFU in patients with advanced AMD and assess the effectiveness of telephone-based outreach in reconnecting them with eye care.

Methods: A custom reporting tool identified patients with advanced AMD who had not returned for eye care between 31 October 2021 and 1 November 2022.

Telehealth improves follow-up and monitoring of age-related macular degeneration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: To prevent vision loss, it is important to monitor patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) for the development of choroidal neovascularization. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused many patients to miss or delay visits. To offset those gaps in care, providers utilized telehealth (TH) to evaluate patients for symptoms of disease progression and provide health education on the importance of continuous monitoring.

Factors Associated with Utilization of Teleretinal Imaging in a Hospital-Based Primary Care Setting.

Regular eye examinations to screen for the initial signs of diabetic retinopathy (DR) are crucial for preventing vision loss. Teleretinal imaging (TRI) offered in a primary care setting provides a means to improve adherence to DR screening, particularly for patients who face challenges in visiting eye care providers regularly. The present study evaluates the utilization of TRI to screen for DR in an outpatient, hospital-based primary care clinic.

Targeted Telephone-Based Outreach Reconnects Glaucoma Patients With Subspecialty Care.

Prcis: A personalized telephone-based intervention is a cost-effective method to return overdue patients with open angle glaucoma (OAG) to subspecialty care. Patients who accepted care overwhelmingly preferred in-person appointments with their provider instead of hybrid visits with telehealth.

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a telephone-based outreach strategy to reconnect OAG patients with subspeciality care.

Effectiveness and Financial Viability of Telehealth Physician Extenders for Re-Engagement of Patients with Diabetic Retinopathy.

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An Initiative to Improve Follow-up of Patients with Glaucoma.

Purpose: This study describes the implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR)-based initiative aimed at reducing the number of patients with glaucoma-related diagnoses lost to follow-up (LTF) and reviews its short-term outcomes.

Design: Retrospective, comparative case series.

Participants: Patients with glaucoma-related diagnoses seen 1 year prior at the Lahey Medical Center and who had not returned within the 6-month period between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2020, which spanned the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States.

Assessing optometric care delivered by telehealth during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Background: The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) forced many eye care providers to implement telehealth services while in-person visits were reserved for essential and/or emergency eye care.

Objective: This study documents how an optometry group successfully implemented telehealth to care for patients during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Design: Retrospective, comparative case series.

Telehealth Encourages Patients with Diabetes in Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups to Return for in-Person Ophthalmic Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on patients from racial and/or ethnic minority groups, causing many to delay healthcare. This study evaluates the role telehealth visits played in helping patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) return for subsequent, in-person eye examinations after the outbreak of COVID-19.

Methods: This retrospective, cross-sectional study analyzed 8147 patients with DM who had completed an outpatient ophthalmology and/or optometry visit in 2019 and who were due for return evaluation after the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

An initiative to improve follow-up of patients with diabetic retinopathy.

Background: This study describes the implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR)-based initiative aimed at identifying and reducing the number of patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) lost to follow-up (LTF).

Method: Providers were enlisted to review the EMRs and re-engage patients with DR seen 1 year prior and who had not returned for care within the past 6 months. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify demographic, clinical and sociomedical factors associated with being LTF, as well as those predictive of re-engagement.

Utilization of Remote Diabetic Retinal Screening in a Suburban Healthcare System.

Purpose: We conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the utilization of a tele-ophthalmology screening program in a low-risk, suburban population of patients with diabetes.

Methods: A total of 214 diabetic patients without previously documented diabetic retinopathy (DR) underwent point-of-care non-mydriatic fundus photography through their primary care providers at five Beth Israel Lahey Health locations. The characteristics of the patients who received remote screening were compared with those patients who were eligible for screening but did not take part in the program.

Quality of referrals for glaucoma assessment: a cross-sectional survey of clinical data and outcomes.

Purpose: This study assessed the completeness of clinical information provided by ophthalmological and optometric referrals to glaucoma specialists consulting for open-angle glaucoma (OAG).

Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study of 72 internal referrals for evaluation of OAG in a multispecialty group practice was performed. The quality of the referral was assessed based on: (1) the completeness of the clinical triad of intraocular pressure measurement, visual field (VF), and cup-to-disk ratio for each eye; (2) the availability of the data necessary to calculate an ocular hypertension treatment study (OHTS) score; and (3) the presence of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) imaging by mean of optical coherence tomography.

Modeling the impact of COVID-19 on Retina Clinic Performance.

Background: COVID-19, a highly contagious respiratory virus, presents unique challenges to ophthalmology practice as a high-volume, office-based specialty. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many operational changes were adopted in our ophthalmology clinic to enhance patient and provider safety while maintaining necessary clinical operations. The aim of this study was to evaluate how measures adopted during the pandemic period affected retina clinic performance and patient satisfaction, and to model future clinic flow to predict operational performance under conditions of increasing patient and provider volumes.

Remote Screening for Optic Nerve Cupping Using Smartphone-based Nonmydriatic Fundus Photography.

Precis: Evaluation of nonmydriatic fundus photographs captured with a low-cost, smartphone-based camera facilitated remote screening of patients for enlarged optic nerve cup-to-disc ratio in the Independent Nation of Samoa, an underserved setting with one full-time ophthalmologist in the entire country.

Purpose: To investigate factors that impact inter-rater agreement of glaucoma suspect optic disc status using a low-cost, handheld nonmydriatic fundus camera.

Methods: Color fundus photographs were obtained using the PanOptic iExaminer attached to an iPhone 6S by a lay examiner on 206 participants in the Independent Nation of Samoa.

Dark Adaptation Survey as a Predictive Tool for Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma.

Purpose: To study the extent to which patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) have subjective difficulties with dark (DA) adaptation and vision under low-luminance conditions and to correlate the reported difficulties with severity of disease, specifically visual field loss.

Design: Prospective, comparative case series.

Participants: Two hundred twenty patients with and without POAG who sought treatment at an outpatient subspecialty glaucoma clinic between October 2016 and September 2018.

Randomized comparison of 1-Site and 2-Site phacotrabeculectomy with 3-year follow-up.

Purpose: To compare intraocular pressure (IOP) control and other clinical outcomes after 1-site fornix-based and 2-site limbus-based phacotrabeculectomy.

Design: Prospective randomized controlled trial.

Participants: A total of 90 eyes of 76 patients with cataract and glaucoma were treated.

A 3-month clinical trial comparing the IOP-lowering efficacy of bimatoprost and latanoprost in patients with normal-tension glaucoma.

This multicenter, randomized, double-blind clinical trial was undertaken to compare the intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering efficacy and safety of topical bimatoprost 0.03% with that of latanoprost 0.005% for the treatment of patients with normal-tension glaucoma.