Rural and Remote Health

www.rrh.org.au
James Cook University ISSN 1445-6354

Project Report

A novel technology tool to capture the clinical information of patients across rural vision centers in a three-tier eye care network in India using the eyeSmart EMR App

AUTHORS

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Priyanka Kammari1 B Optom, Consultant Optometrist

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Mahesh Chandra Ambadker2 B Optom, Junior Optometrist

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Abhinav Loomba3 MS, Junior Ophthalmlogist

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Navya Deepthi4 B Optom, Consultant Optometrist

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Shravani M5 B Optom, Consultant Optometrist

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Ranganath Vadapalli6 MCA, Technical Lead

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Sapthagiri Maduri7 M Tech, EMR Associate

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Shyam Sunder Reddy Bhaskey8 B Tech, Programmer

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Mukesh Taneja9 MS, Consultant Ophthalmologist

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Anthony Vipin Das10 FRCS, Consultant Ophthalmologist *

AFFILIATIONS

1, 2, 6, 7, 8 Department of eyeSmart EMR & AEye, L V Prasad Eye Institute, India

3, 4, 5, 9 Department of Tele-Ophthalmology, L V Prasad Eye Institute, India

10 Department of eyeSmart EMR & AEye and Department of Tele-Ophthalmology, L V Prasad Eye Institute, India

ACCEPTED: 30 May 2019

A technology tool to capture clinical information across rural vision centers in India


early abstract:

Purpose: To describe the implementation of a novel technology tool to capture demographic distribution and clinical presentation of patients in rural vision centers using the eyeSmart EMR App in a three-tier eye care network in India.

Methods: A two-year retrospective review of all the patients who presented to the rural vision centers of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute eye care network was performed from September 2016 to August 2018 using an in-house developed eyeSmart EMR App.

Results: A total of 501,771patients were captured on the eyeSmart EMR App across the LVPEI network. The ratio of males (n=273,985, 54.60%) and females (n=227,786, 45.40%) presenting to the rural vision centres was 1.2:1. The most prevalent ocular disorder was Refractive Errors (n=273,720, 44.32%).

Conclusions:This study describes a novel technology tool to address the challenges of connectivity and power in capturing clinical information of patients in a large rural vision center network in India.