Enhancing collaborative eye care through telemedicine

Abstract:

Delivering equitable eye services for rural and remote communities represents a unique challenge to healthcare providers. Within Western Australia (WA), the integration of teleophthalmology in service delivery has played a pivotal role in addressing these challenges. Lions Outback Vision was established in 2010 at the Lions Eye Institute in Perth and now serves 51 communities with visiting optometry and/or ophthalmology. This article first presents an overview of the journey towards the development of an integrated teleophthalmology model over the past decade, with a focus on the key lessons building an effective telemedicine service. The article then considers the future of teleophthalmology in Australia, making the case that optometrist-facilitated collaborative care models may be translated into urban areas to address the problem of burgeoning specialist waitlists. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated telemedicine capability across the globe and catapulted its applications beyond traditional geographic barriers to healthcare.