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Photos with your phone
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 Photos of patient's fundus via phone. |
When I was a resident, anterior segment photos were taken with a large (and expensive) camera with a high-power macro lens. These days, I use a handheld digital camera to take most anterior segment photos, and now there's even a way to take good fundus photos with your cellular phone. You can take a photo of a patient's fundus and then email or text it to colleagues.
The device that enables this is the iExaminer from Intuitive Medical Technologies (www.iExam.com), which couples an iPhone to a handheld ophthalmoscope. A free download of the iExaminer application even walks clinicians through a typical ophthalmic exam, including visual acuity testing and more.
I have been using this device at our teaching hospital to educate medical students. It is also very useful for primary care doctors, neurologists and emergency physicians because it simplifies the process of looking at the optic nerve and makes it easy to transmit the image to an ophthalmologist for a quick opinion. I encourage you to try out the device, particularly if you teach other clinicians or if you're like me and you just love gadgets.
Disclosure: Dr. Devgan has no direct financial interest in the products discussed here, nor is he a paid consultant for any companies mentioned.