Teleophthalmology

At the National Innovation Event in Glasgow June 2019 Iain Livingstone, Consultant Ophthalmologist from NHS Forth Valley showcased his innovation of a bespoke slit lamp mounted adapter that supported the use of apple ipads to enable remote video consultations (via Near Me) in emergency eye care.

The Innovation Hub in attendance immediately saw the service benefit in this technology and approached Iain to collaborate on a service evaluation in NHS Grampian. The project aims were simple, to avoid unnecessary patient journeys to emergency eye centres. For patients attending A&E in Dr Gray’s Hospital, this would reduce the need to make the 130 mile round trip to ARI, and treatment could be started confidently without delay, resulting in a better clinical outcome for the patient.

The project evaluation started officially in December 2019, however in March 2020 was impacted, like many services, by COVID-19. The project rapidly evolved, and the technology was scaled up and rolled out for use across the optometrist community in Grampian and Shetland, with 6 emergency eye treatment centres being set up to utilise the technology to provide emergency eye care during the pandemic and keeping patients out of the hospital.