Online course helps nonophthalmic health care workers detect signs of glaucoma
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A new study has shown that Orbis International’s online course helps nonophthalmic health care workers, who are already trained to recognize diabetic retinopathy, identify signs of glaucoma comparable to ophthalmologists.
“Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness around the world,” lead researcher Olusola Oluyinka Olawoye, MSc, MD, PhD, a glaucoma specialist at the College of Medicine University of Ibadan in Nigeria, said in an Orbis International press release. “High-risk patients who have regular screenings can be prevented from going blind from glaucoma by receiving prompt treatment. This study demonstrates that nonophthalmic diabetic retinopathy graders can screen patients for two major causes of blindness in one appointment, freeing up time for more highly trained ophthalmic experts to focus on patients with more complicated cases that need their services.”
In a study conducted in Vietnam, 43 nurses, technicians and nonophthalmic physicians who were previously trained diabetic retinopathy graders completed a 5-hour training course on Orbis’s Cybersight telemedicine and e-learning platform, which trained participants to screen for glaucoma using optic nerve photos. Tests were conducted both before and after the course.
The control group comprised 29 local ophthalmologists in Vietnam, who underwent a single test, but did not undergo training.
The researchers found that the study group doubled their scores, which began at 33.3%±14.3% on average, and after taking the online course scored 55.8%±12.6%., a similar level as the ophthalmologist control group, which scored 58.7±15.4%.
“There is a growing gap between the burden of glaucoma in this region and the number of trained ophthalmologists,” Ngoc Pham, country director of Orbis Vietnam, said in the release. “A new screening model that utilizes lower-level health workers is necessary to fight this disease, in Vietnam, the rest of Asia and beyond.”
Reference:
- Study Finds Online Course Effectively Trains Health Workers to Detect Glaucoma. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/study-finds-online-course-effectively-trains-health-workers-to-detect-glaucoma-301994103.html. Published Nov. 27, 2023. Accessed Nov. 28, 2023.
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