ArticlePloS one2021
Utility of teleconsultation in accessing eye care in a developing country during COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Translating Value Across Telehealth Stakeholders: A Rapid Review of Telehealth Measurement Evidence and a New Policy Framework to Guide Telehealth Researchers.Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association · 2024Pooled it
- Facilitators of and Barriers to Accessing Hospital Medical Specialty Telemedicine Consultations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- The Role of Optometry in the Delivery of Eye Care via Telehealth: A Systematic Literature Review.Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association · 2022Pooled it
- Awareness of Common Ocular Conditions Among Trinidad Population: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Using School-Based Teleconsultation Services to Make Community Health Services Accessible in Semirural Settings of Pakistan: Sequential Explanatory Mixed Methods Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Telehealth improves follow-up and monitoring of age-related macular degeneration during the COVID-19 pandemic.International ophthalmology · 2023Article
- Utilization of telehealth to manage the Covid-19 pandemic in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2023Article
- Knowledge, attitude and perception of optometrists in Trinidad and Tobago towards teleoptometry.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Surfing the COVID-19 Tsunami with Teleophthalmology: the Advent of New Models of Eye Care.Current ophthalmology reports · 2023Review
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on carbon footprint and strategies to mitigate waste generation.Indian journal of ophthalmology · 2022Article
- Eye Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Report on Patients' Perceptions and Experiences, an Asian Perspective.Ophthalmology and therapy · 2022Article
- Observational
- Telemedicine in Low- and Middle-Income Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Article
- A comparative clinical study of postoperative care by teleophthalmology and in-person consultation at hospital outpatient department after an uncomplicated cataract surgery.Oman journal of ophthalmologyArticle
- Trick or treat: Social Media's dissemination power of ophthalmologic information in the pandemic context.Romanian journal of ophthalmologyReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the utility of teleconsultation in the provision of eye care services during the COVID-19 lockdown. Disparities in the consultation burden of sub-specialities and socio-demographic differences in teleconsultation utilization were also assessed.
methodsAl-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi began audio and video teleconsultation using broadband telecommunication services during the lockdown. Patients' and consultations' data gathered during the first three weeks after the commencement of this programme were compared with data from the four weeks prior to lockdown. The weekly consultation ratio and overall consultation burden of sub-specialities were measured. Chi-Square tests of association determined the relationship between different variables (socioeconomic status and consultation characteristics) and consultation modality (on-site vs online).
resultsIn total, 17507 on-site consultations (4377/week) were conducted compared to 1431 teleconsultations (477/week), which maintained 10.89% of the weekly pre-lockdown eye care services. The post-lockdown teleconsultation programme saw a relatively higher percentage of service utility among female (47.09% vs 44.71%), younger-age (31.33±19.45 vs 41.25±23.32 years) and higher-socioeconomic-status (32.21% vs 0.30%) patients compared to pre-lockdown on-site consultations. The most common indication for teleconsultation was red-eye (16.70%). While cornea and glaucoma clinics maintained most of the pre-lockdown services (30.42% and 29% respectively), the highest dropout was seen in optometric and vitreoretinal services supporting only 5.54% and 8.28% of pre-lockdown services, respectively.
conclusionDigital initiatives could partially maintain eye care services during the lockdown. Focused strategies to improve teleconsultation utilization are required during the pandemic and beyond.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.