LA medical group uses telemedicine to fight child blindness in Armenia

U.S. eye specialists reach out through a special system based in part on Skype for Business.

With only a 48-hour window of opportunity, how do you keep a child from going blind when there is a lack of eye surgeons with proper training? That’s where telemedicine technology and eye specialists come together.

According to healthcareitnews.com, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is the largest pediatric multispecialty medical group in the United States. Children from around the world can receive specialized care from 564 physicians in any of 32 specialties and 31 other areas of complex conditions.

Recently, one group within Children’s Hospital Los Angeles looked at the rate of infant blindness in Armenia – which was three times the rate of the U.S. and other Western countries – and asked, “How can we help?” How could the medical group eliminate preventable blindness in Armenia and neighboring rural areas? And how could the medical group educate doctors in third-world countries about complex blinding diseases in a cost-effective manner without compromising care?

Thomas Lee, MD, joined the Armenia EyeCare Project at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He and a team of doctors traveled to Armenia to provide assessment, care and programming, and the need to train remote care teams became clear: There were not enough surgeons available with the specialized knowledge required to provide life-changing eye surgeries.

Another critical issue was that some of these sight-saving surgeries for premature infants with certain retinal conditions must take place within 48 hours of birth. The lack of trained surgeons meant many infants might miss their opportunity.

So SADA Systems, a Microsoft partner, built a telemedicine system using Microsoft technology especially for Lee to reach out from L.A. to Armenia to stop infants from going blind.

“Skype for Business along with a Polycom codec allowed us to be present virtually during the operation,” Lee said. “One of the primary obstacles to training surgeons in developing countries is the difficulty in getting the expertise to the trainee to properly supervise them during their actual operations. Historically this has required the expert to travel to the remote country and then assist the doctor directly.”

These medical missions are very time-consuming, and unfortunately often need to be arranged months in advance, a period of time many patients do not have, Lee said.

“By having a remote platform available, we were able to provide the supervision needed in a timely fashion for the patient without requiring the expert to disrupt their own practice,” he explained.

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