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Telemedicine platform allows clinicians to enhance care for their patients
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ST. LOUIS – EyeCareLive offers a telemedicine platform to optometrists and ophthalmologists to strengthen an existing doctor-patient relationship by offering remote consultation.
Primary Care Optometry News spoke with executives from the company here at Optometry’s Meeting, where they announced that EyeCareLive Version 2.0 would be launched the following week.
Co-founder and chief medical officer Moshe Mendelson, OD, MBA, told PCON that the technology promotes better access and elevates the level of care by connecting patients to their eye care providers through a secure, HIPAA-compliant portal via a smartphone application.
This technology is not meant to be a replacement for a comprehensive exam.
“This is a tool for professionals to be competitive and accessible to patients and helps maintain the doctor-patient relationship,” he told PCON. The portal integrates with the electronic medical record so the doctor has access to the patient’s medical history and other pertinent health information. Video chat is available, including group chat that could involve staff members, and the visit is billable.
CEO Rajesh Ramchandani told PCON, “Other telemedicine systems pick up any patient without knowing the patient’s history. That might work fine for trivial conditions, but eye care is a different ballgame. Patients can have access to their own doctor.”
The app provides patients with criteria to work through to ensure their consultation with the doctor can be accomplished through telemedicine, he said.
The American Optometric Association’s recommendations released in a 2017 white paper on telemedicine were implemented into the platform, Ramchandani said.
Mendelson said the platform is currently best suited for anterior segment conditions such as eye infections and allergies as well as managing long-term conditions such as dry eye.
“Patients can alternate between brick-and-mortar visits and the app,” he said. “It can be used as a matter of convenience to review test results, which are uploaded and able to be viewed by both the doctor and the patient.”
Patients can also take photos and videos and send to the doctor through the app, keeping the doctor’s phone number private, he said.
The app can walk the patient through visual acuity testing for near and far using augmented reality, Ramchandani said.
Patients can also take the Standardized Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness questionnaire through the app, Mendelson said.
He hopes to expand the utility of the technology to include Amsler grid testing, he said. – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO
Disclosure: Mendelson and Ramchandani are employed by EyeCareLive.