A new pilot study has demonstrated the feasibility of at-home optical coherence tomography (OCT) monitoring via a patient operated device.
The study utilised automated data transmission for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients who monitored themselves at home with an OCT device for three months.
The study’s author, Anat Loewenstein, said that daily monitoring could reduce the amount of required clinic visits.
Loewenstein explained that that the patients’ OCT data was uploaded to a secure cloud and analysed via a machine learning algorithm trained in OCT analysis. Four patients with unilateral or bilateral neovascular AMD were included in the study, and of 240 self-imaging attempts 211 (87.9%) were completed successfully.
The machine learning system and human graders agreed in their analysis in 94.7% of cases. Based on this study, researchers concluded that the study patients were able to perform daily self-imaging at home.
‘Home OCT telemedicine systems provide an alternative method for physicians to monitor disease and may allow highly personalised retreatment decisions,’ said Loewenstein.
He added: ‘The review of remote OCT data will offer new billing opportunities for ophthalmologists who utilise the service of a remote monitoring centre that provides home OCT service to patients.'