eHealth

Diagnosis and Treatment of Retinopathy of Prematurity:

Dr. Besirli’s clinical practice involves treating pediatric patients with retinal diseases.  He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in premature infants.  Screening and treatment of premature infants with ROP are performed by few ophthalmologists and studies consistently show that the shortage of ophthalmologists providing ROP care will increase with time.  Therefore, an alternative health care delivery model is needed to cover the gap and prevent childhood blindness from ROP.  Our group is actively investigating the role of telemedicine and automated image analysis in the diagnosis and treatment of ROP.

Remote Monitoring of Eye Diseases - Clinical Trial

A stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized clinical trial has been designed and is to be conducted in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, India within the Aravind Eye Care System. Vision centers in rural locations surrounding Pondicherry that screen members of the community for eye disease will implement in a randomized sequence routine fundus photography sent via telemedicine to be interpreted by ophthalmologists at the main hospital. Resultant pathology and impact on patient flow will be contrasted with current practice of selective fundus photography.

This project is supported by the Kellogg Eye Center’s International Center for Ophthalmology and the Aravind Eye Care System (Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India), and includes Assistant Professor Maria Woodward, MD, MS and 3^rd year resident Nakul Shekhawat, MD, MPH.

Dr. Newman-Casey’s research focuses on leveraging technology in order to extend the reach of health care providers to provide more patient-centric care. She is part of an ongoing collaboration with colleagues both at Kellogg and at the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu, Nepal and the Aravind Eye Hospital System in Tamil Nadu, India to evaluate the performance of portable ophthalmic testing equipment. The most recent work evaluated the performance of portable fundus cameras compared to gold standard table-top fundus cameras to enable remote screening for diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. The portable, less expensive equipment performed just as well as the standard equipment.  The group continues to evaluate new technology that would enable higher quality, specialty ophthalmic care to be delivered to people close to home even when accessing an ophthalmic specialist is difficult. 

Telemedicine for Anterior Eye Diseases

Dr. Woodwards's research, funded by an NEI K23, is to establish the safety, reliability and feasibility of telemedicine for anterior segment eye diseases. In pilot studies, Dr. Woodward validated various methods with external photography and patient-reported outcomes for anterior segment eye diseases.

Grant Support

• K23 EY023596 National Eye Institute
  PI Maria A. Woodward, MD, MS
  09/01/2013 - 08/31/2018
  Telemedicine for Anterior Eye Disease
• Alliance for Vision
  PI Maria A. Woodward, MD, MS
  04/01/2017 – 03/31/2018
  Development of Clinical Tools for Telemedicine in Ophthalmology
  Project: Validation of corneal imaging tools for quantifying anterior segment disease

Telemedicine for Diabetic Retinopathy 

Development and oversight of a successful telemedicine diabetic retinopathy screening program as the co-director of the Kellogg Eye Center for eHealth. 

Remote Monitoring of Eye Diseases

Dr. Woodward is involved in research that focuses on deep monitoring chronic disease status in elderly, underserved, and remote populations by designing and building a high-resolution, low cost, 3D-imaging system optimized to survey the human eye in wide range of clinical environments.

Grant Support

• Third Century Initiative: Global Challenges Grant
  PI David Burke, PhD
  02/01/2015 – 12/31/2017
  University of Michigan
  Deep-monitoring chronic disease in under-served and remote populations

Remote Monitoring of Eye Diseases - Clinical Trial

A stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized clinical trial has been designed and is to be conducted in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, India within the Aravind Eye Care System. Vision centers in rural locations surrounding Pondicherry that screen members of the community for eye disease will implement in a randomized sequence routine fundus photography sent via telemedicine to be interpreted by ophthalmologists at the main hospital. Resultant pathology and impact on patient flow will be contrasted with current practice of selective fundus photography.

This project is supported by the Kellogg Eye Center’s International Center for Ophthalmology and the Aravind Eye Care System (Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India), and includes  Professor David C. Musch, PhD, MPH and 3^rd year resident Nakul Shekhawat, MD, MPH.