VIRTUAL KERATOCONUS (KC) PATHWAY – COULD THIS BE THE FUTURE.

Published 2023 - 27th ESCRS Winter Meeting

Reference: O30 | Type: Free Paper Submission | DOI: 10.82333/6cwf-dg32

Authors: Tariq Mohammad* ¹ , Stephenie tiew ¹ , Jeremy Prydal ¹ , Vijay Savant ¹ , Prashant mistry ¹ , davide romano ¹ , Yahya Vali ¹ , Navpreet Dhillon ¹

¹Ophthalmology,NHS England,Leicester,United Kingdom

Purpose

We wish to assess the safety and satisfaction of patients who attended an innovative virtual KC clinic that was setup during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to ensure that KC patients were still getting assessed in a timely manner.

Setting

All patients had an assessment at their local optician followed by their virtual appointment at Leicester Royal Infirmary, an English teaching hospital ophthalmology department in the United Kingdom.

Methods

All patients received an appointment to have best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and up-to-date refraction at a community optician and a subsequent visit to ophthalmology department for corneal tomography. These assessments were than reviewed by trained hospital optometrists and graded as either stable where patients were continued to be monitored virtually or progressive where patients were listed for a one stop cornea crosslinking clinic.

A self-administered survey was conducted to establish a view point of patients about the whole process.

Results

The virtual KC pathway has generated 2184 appointments a year in addition to 987 face-to-face KC appointments. This has trebled current capacity and the significant increase in capacity means there is currently no waiting list for KC monitoring or new patients.

Close to 80% says that this process is more convenient compare to face-to-face with almost 90% says that they were seen on time and that they were happy with the care they received.

Conclusion

Corneal collagen cross-linking has revolutionised the management of keratoconus. There is strict eligibility criteria and therefore close monitoring is required to ensure those patients that are at risk of progression are identified early and treated promptly.

Leicester Royal Infirmary offers a virtual KC monitoring clinic led by hospital-based optometrists. This process has significantly increased the capacity and improved patients’ satisfaction.