teleoftalweb 3.0: Web–Based Ophthalmologic Medical Record

Abstract

Abstract: : Purpose: Ophthalmologic diagnosis is improved when it can be contrasted with several specialists. This is specially interesting when the patient lives in rural areas, and the family doctor lacks specific training. So, the aim of this work lies in the development of an electronic ophthalmologic medical record, which could be shared among medical specialists at different locations. Methods: A web–based software tool has been implemented. In this way it is possible to access to the system from anywhere, only with a computer and an Internet connection. The main design principles have been: • Easy operation. • Security, both at access level (private key), and at communication level (encrypted sessions). • Platform independency. • Addition of functions to manage medical records and to process images. • Integral management by means of a centralized database. Results: The developed application enables to share ophthalmologic medical records, as well as the associated images, regardless of their location. It is possible to support 500–1000 simultaneous connections, depending on how much RAM the server has and what the clients are doing. In addition, the storage capacity is only limited by the maximum file size enabled for the operating system, so the scalabiblity is guaranteed. With regard to security, it is defined by the SSL layer, which encrypts the client–server communications. Conclusions: The use of telematic applications may help to improve the care to patients in the daily clinical practice. Thanks to them, the data exchange among specialists is made easier. Additional benefits are derived from the possibility to exploit the collected data with educational or research purposes.

Keywords: clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques • diabetic retinopathy • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower