Office Environment

Patient Education: There’s an App for That (Eye Doctor)

By Steve Vargo, OD, MBA

Mobile devices like electronic tablets and smartphones–when loaded with helpful apps–can be used to educate patients about eye health and facilitate better doctor-patient communication.

Mobile technology is poised to change the way healthcare is delivered. Healthcare professionals are using mobile devices in educational and clinical settings to track patient information, download web content, access databases, and utilize medical apps that enhance both clinical care and the patient experience.

Patient Education and Clinical Tool

In my practice, we’ve introduced mobile devices mostly for the purpose of patient education and clinical reference. We recently started using DocPIES to engage and interact with patients. DocPIES is an app that utilizes the iPad interface. We’ve used it mostly for patient education. For example, while patients are dilating we can play them a video of how we can co-manage a LASIK procedure or the benefit of multi-focal IOLs. Our staff also uses it in the dispensary to educate patients on everything from lens options (i.e., explain the difference between a CR-39 and high-index lens) to proper care of contact lenses.

I’ve long been a fan of using medical apps for clinical reference purposes. Apparently I’m not alone. According to a new study by IT industry association CompTIA, more than 50 percent of physicians use a smartphone for work. Noted in the study were that 25 percent of healthcare providers surveyed use tablets at their practice, while another 21 percent expect to do so in the next 12 months. Thirty-eight percent of physicians with smartphones use medical apps on a daily basis, with that number increasing to 50 percent in the next twelve months, according to mobihealthnews.

Top Apps

While I’ve used several apps, here are a few of my favorites and their main features:
Eyedock:This clinical reference for eyecare professionals features a searchable contact lens and ocular pharmaceuticals database, calculators that streamline prescribing contact lenses, and anICD-9 lookup.

Epocrates:This mobile software application provides information about drugs to doctors and other healthcare professionals. Among its software functions is the ability to check for drug interactions, news feeds for product announcements and medical news, journal article lookup, as well as a mobile guide to ICD-9 and Current Procedural Terminology (“CPT”) diagnosis codes.

Eye Handbook:This smartphone diagnostic and reference tool currently has over 20 features with new content regularly added. With over 220,000 downloads, this one is worth checking out.

VisionSim: This app was developed by the Braille Institute, and it allows people with healthy vision to experience the world through the eyes of a person experiencing one of nine degenerative eye diseases, including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and cataracts.

I reached out to colleagues for feedback on how they are using smartphones and tablets to educate, inform and entertain. Here are a few of the interesting ways our fellow ODs use this technology:

Collect patient information: Stephanie Lyons, OD, of Lyons Family Eye Care in Chicago, uses iPads for the patient case history and the initial patient check-in procedure. When patients check-in they are handed an iPad and instructed to fill in the New Patient Information Form. Using the PDF Expert app and Adobe Acrobat Pro, most of the form simply requires the patient to touch a box. For information that requires a written response, the iPad’s built in touch-type screen pops up automatically when needed. It typically takes about five minutes to fill out the form, and then the document is sent to Dropbox where it is saved to all the office computers.

Dispensary: Harry Wiessner, OD, of Vision Source Walla Walla in Walla, Walla, Wash., uses an Android Acer “slate” to take pictures of patients wearing different frames. It has a 10-inch screen and a front and back facing camera. After a technician takes the pictures, the patient can view themselves from different angles, plus the pictures can be sent directly to the patient or their family.

Developmental Vision: Devolopmental optometrist, Dominick Maino, OD, of Illinois College of Optometry uses the Parks 3 Step, Sight Selector and VisionSim from the Braille Institute to help diagnose problems, show patient examples and provide patient education.

Entertainment: Jennifer Carter, OD, of West Georgia Eye Care in Carrollton, Ga., uses movies and games to help keep kids still while the parents or siblings are having their eye exam or choosing eyeglasses.

Translating languages: Mark Dagainis, OD, of The Eye Group, S.C., in Waukesha, Wis., recently used Dragon Dictation to communicate with a deaf mute. He dictated and the patient read the transcribed side of the conversation. There are also apps, such as Google Translate, that can translate words and phrases for almost any language. You simply speak your phrases and hear the corresponding translation.

Clinical: Several ODs mentioned they use a smartphone to take slit lamp photos to educate patients or family members. You simply hold your phone up to the oculars and draw back to focus the image. You can take anterior seg photos through the slit lamp of everything from fluorescein photos of RGPs, corneal pathology, iris anomalies, lens changes, weiss rings, etc. You can even send the photos to the lab for consultation assistance.

Mobile technology is poised to have a profound impact on the way healthcare is delivered. If you’re not leveraging this technology in your optometric practice, you may be missing opportunities to improve office efficiency, enhance clinical care and improve the patient experience.

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Steve Vargo, OD, MBA,is president of iMobile Communications, which specializes in mobile communication and marketing for doctors. To contact him: svargo@iMobileCommunications.com.

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