Abstract:

Objective To investigate the timeliness of the image reading and the description details of the reading reports in teleophthalmology. Design Retrospective case series. Participants  7713 cases of patients in the teleophthalmic image reading center of Beijing Tongren Hospital in December 2015. Methods The reading report data was exported as Excel file format with Daheng Prust cloud medical system software. The time between the basic hospital upload image data and the remote access to read and give the report by a doctor was calculated with the software. The number of words of “image description of ocular fundus” and “treatment recommendations” were calculated with LEN function of Excel software. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS13.0 software. Main Outcome Measures The timeliness of the image reading, the number of words of “description of ocular fundus image” and “treatment recommendations”. Result The median time of getting reading report from the image reading center was 55 minutes ( percentile 25%~75%: 18~118 minutes) in 7713 patients. 35.3% of the patients got the results of the image reading within 30 minutes, and 91.5% within 4 hours. The number of words of “description of ocular fundus image” was average (28.7±15.6) words and the number of words of “treatment recommendations” was average (15.7±12.9) words. According to the doctors for analysis, the average number of words of “description of ocular fundus image” was at least (15.0±7.9) words, most (49.2±16.2) words. The average number of words of “treatment recommendations” was at least (5.6±5.0) words, most (36.4±21.3) words. Conclusion At present, the vast majority of patients receiving telophthalmology image reading service get an image report within half a day. However, the details of “description of ocular fundus image” and “treatment recommendations” in the reading reports are uneven. Therefore, further training and strengthening the management to reading doctors is needed. (Ophthalmol CHN, 2016, 25: 13-17)

Key words: teleophthalmology, quality control