An Electronic Patient Management System In The Form Of Eyetrack Provides Useful Benefits To Patients With Glaucoma

Abstract

Abstract: : Purpose: Electronic patient management systems are currently being developed for ophthalmic patients, however, their precise value in clinical practice is not known. We present a study designed to compare the speed and accuracy of data retrieval from glaucoma patient records using an electronic patient system (EyeTrack®) and conventional paper record (CPR) system. Methods: Two pairs of doctors assessed 20 glaucoma patient records in a randomised prospective manner. These records were held both on EyeTrack and a CPR system. These records were randomised into two groups, each containing 10 CPRs and 10 EyeTrack records. Each doctor assessed the patient record groups to answer 10 different clinical queries regarding glaucoma management. The time taken to answer the set of questions and the accuracy of each answer was measured. The results were analysed to determine statistical significance. Results: The mean time taken for doctors to answer the 10 questions using the EyeTrack system was 104.8(± 34.0) seconds(± SD) and 324.4(± 106.0) seconds(± SD) per patient for CPR system. The accuracy for EyeTrack was 98%(±4%) as compared to 84%(± 13%) for CPR. These differences were statistically significant (t–test, p0.01). Conclusions: The above results show the EyeTrack system is superior to CPR in retrieving glaucoma management data. Improvements in time to collect information (3mins 40secs per patient time saved) as well as accuracy were found. These results indicate an electronic patient management system in the form of EyeTrack provides useful advantages in the management of glaucoma patients.

Keywords: computational modeling