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Remote monitoring of IOP in glaucoma patients

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First Author: V.Tkachev RUSSIA

Co Author(s):    T. Bondareva                    

Abstract Details

Purpose:

The main goal of our study is to evaluate promising approaches to continuous monitoring of patients with open-angle glaucoma. Compact IOP indicators are available to patients for daily measurement of intraocular pressure. Despite the obvious advantages of this approach, remote analysis of patient data based on artificial intelligence remains controversial and cannot completely replace face-to-face medical monitoring. The role and place of remote IOP monitoring and artificial intelligence-based advisors require further professional discussion and should be presented in international guidelines.

Setting:

Glaucoma remains the main cause of primary blindness in Russia and many other countries. The lack of outpatient ophthalmologists in rural areas makes this problem even more difficult. The only way out of this situation is the further development of remote IOP monitoring methods and algorithms based on artificial intelligence.

Methods:

Our system of the remote monitoring of patients with glaucoma includes the handle IOP-indicator, mobile app with patient’s interface and doctor’s platform. At the first stage we analyze all the information (average IOP, excess of tolerant IOP) on the human’s basis. We use received big data to teach AI-algorithm. At the second stage, we will test the algorithm for automatic patient’s conditions analysis and medical records formation. The wide usage of the algorithm in every day practice is clinically limited. Further legal approval requires clinical researches.

Results:

At the moment, we don’t use the AI-based algorithm in clinical practice, because of it’s legal restrictions. The main aim of our presentation is the deep professional discussion of the problem and the insertion AI-based algorithm in European glaucoma guideline.

Conclusions:

On the one hand, a remote IOP monitoring system cannot be widely used. The main limiting factors are the unclear medical role of AI-based methods, their legal ambiguity, and the alertness of elderly patients. Additional difficulties are associated with providing patients with individual IOP meters. On the other hand, telemedicine methods have become widely used in everyday practice. They help to improve the efficiency of medical care, reduce the burden on the ophthalmological system and reduce the need for face-to-face visits. Such methods have shown their importance in cases of restricted movement (for example, during global pandemics).

Financial Disclosure:

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