Enhancing Global Eye Care: Insights from Telehealth Expert Panel

IAPB was delighted to be invited to join the ATA’s Global Health Collaborative webinar on the global efforts in providing eye care and preventing blindness, the role for telehealth. Thank you to Dale Alverson and Susan Yamamoto for the opportunity to connect to the wider telehealth community. Panellists for the webinar are IAPB members, Shivang R Dave, Co-Founder & CEO PlenOptika, Kunal Parikh, Assistant Professor, Wilmer Eye Institute, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hunter Cherwek, VP, Clinical Services and Technologies, Orbis International.

Members of IAPB’s Technology Taskforce discussed the importance of tele health, work they are doing around new innovations and the IAPB Eye Health Technology Guide. Shivang Dave introduced the guide to the non eye care audience “The Technology for Access Guide helps you prepare your technologies for global health applications. It gives you frameworks for deploying them sustainably at scale.”

The discussion focuses on the transformative role of telehealth in delivering eye care globally, highlighting its ability to increase access and prevent blindness. Shivang Dave emphasized how telehealth empowers underserved communities, stating, “Telemedicine can bridge gaps in traditional healthcare system delivery.” Kunal Parikh added that the technology allows specialists to remotely guide local practitioners, saying, “Telemedicine and artificial intelligence have potential to improve outcomes for all stakeholders, including increasing access and integration of patients into the care system, increasing hospital revenue and efficiency, and optimizing ophthalmologist time for patient care”.

The panellists spoke about specific examples that covered a range of eye health conditions including refractive error, anterior eye disease and ROP.

The discussion expands on the crucial role of telehealth in eye care, with Hunter Cherwek highlighting the importance of early intervention. He remarked, “Catching eye conditions early can save millions from preventable blindness.” Dale Alverson echoed this sentiment, emphasizing telehealth’s impact on healthcare infrastructure, saying, “We are seeing a paradigm shift in how healthcare is delivered, especially in low-resource areas.” Both pointed to telehealth’s ability to offer early diagnosis and treatment, vastly improving global eye care outcomes.

Each panellist agreed that telehealth is reshaping the future of healthcare, especially in the field of eye care, reducing global health inequities and improving patient outcomes. Their collective insights underscored the power of technology to not only address immediate health needs but to revolutionize healthcare delivery, making expert knowledge more accessible worldwide.

You can access the full transcript and discussion here.