Telemedicine integration into the eye health ecosystem in scaling of effective refractive error coverage in Kenya.
Eye health
Integration
Refractive error
Scaling
Task shifting
Telemedicine
Journal
Scientific reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Titre abrégé: Sci Rep
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101563288
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
06 Aug 2024
06 Aug 2024
Historique:
received:
21
02
2024
accepted:
30
07
2024
medline:
7
8
2024
pubmed:
7
8
2024
entrez:
6
8
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
This study explored the potential of telemedicine integration into the eye health ecosystem with an aim of scaling effective refractive error coverage in Kenya. This exploratory study was conducted telephonically and through online interviews with key opinion leaders, ophthalmologists, optometrists, ophthalmic clinical officers, optical technicians and beneficiaries of the optical technician's services in rural areas. A telemedicine workflow was developed and validated based on the comments from the key opinion leaders using the Delphi technique. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using SPSS and NVivo Software respectively. All of the key opinion leaders agreed that telemedicine is relevant in the eye health ecosystem and recognition of primary vision technicians is critical for effective telemedicine integration. The reasons for the need of telemedicine integration were categorized into; good relationship, organized refractive error service delivery, convenience and availability and cost reduction. The possible factors influencing integration of telemedicine identified were categorized into cost, unwillingness, dominance, perception, lack of technical team, policies and network coverage. The limited human resources in the eye health ecosystem in developing countries cannot effectively deliver refractive error services to the growing population. Hence, integration of telemedicine and establishment of policies recognizing telemedicine are desirable to strengthen task shifting and scale effective refractive error coverage.
Identifiants
pubmed: 39107375
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-68993-5
pii: 10.1038/s41598-024-68993-5
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
18170Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
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