big data – Page 2 – Computational Ophthalmology

June 3, 2020October 9, 2020

Predictors of Narrow Angle Detection Rate-A Longitudinal Study of Massachusetts Residents Over 1.7 Million Person Years

In this large retrospective study published in the journal Eye, Dr. Cecilia Lee and her co-authors reviewed data from a Massachusetts claims database to assess how certain risk factors for glaucoma are detected and diagnosed during an eye exam. The authors compared outcomes from both ophthalmologists and optometrists to determine if there were any differences in how often they referred at-risk patients for further evaluation and treatment.

Primary angle closure glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, affecting ~26% of the glaucoma population globally. Timely detection of occludable narrow angles (condition that can sometimes progress to primary angle closure glaucoma) in patients who are at risk is a key method of prevention. If indicated, patients can be referred for laser peripheral iridotomy to prevent more serious outcomes.

March 31, 2020October 15, 2020

Smoking Is Associated with Higher Intraocular Pressure Regardless of Glaucoma.

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Citation

Cigarette smoking is known to play a role in several ophthalmologic diseases, but reports about the effect of smoking on intraocular pressure and glaucoma have had conflicting results. In this study published in the journal Ophthalmology Glaucoma, Drs. Cecilia and Aaron Lee and their co-authors takes advantage of the American Academy of Ophthalmology IRIS (Intelligent Research in Sight) Registry, a database of 60+ million unique patients and 15,000 eye care providers to examine the connection between smoking history and intraocular pressure in more than 12 million smokers, past smokers, and nonsmokers. The authors controlled for other factors known to raise IOP (age, sex, cataract surgery, glaucoma surgery) and compared mean interocular pressure between patients with and without glaucoma according to their smoking history. They found that intraocular pressure was highest in the smoking group, a trend that was present in almost every year of life.

March 23, 2020October 15, 2020

Prognostic utility of whole genome sequencing and polymerase chain reaction tests of ocular fluids in post-procedural endophthalmitis

Pubmed

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Endophthalmitis is a rare but significant potential complication of eye surgery that can result in a substantial loss of vision. Microbial culture remains the gold standard for detecting organisms associated with endophthalmitis, but in 30% of cases no organism is identified. Molecular testing such as PCR or deep DNA sequencing have been increasingly used in ophthalmology, and can identify and characterize pathogens with unprecedented detail. We sought to apply these techniques to a prospective cohort of patients with endophthalmitis and correlate the findings with clinical outcomes, to determine whether they provide additional prognostic information for the management of post-procedure endophthalmitis.

July 29, 2019September 27, 2020

Medicare incentive payments to U.S. ophthalmologists for use of electronic health records: 2011-2016

Pubmed

Journal

Citation

The use of electronic health records offers a lot of advantages in terms of providing accurate, coordinated, up-to-date care for patients and may also help to reduce medical errors. The benefits depend on widespread implementation, however, and there have been challenges with getting physicians to use electronic records because they can require extra time, effort, and cost.

To encourage physicians to implement electronic health records into their practices, an incentive program was created by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, which provided direct payments yearly to physicians who adopted the use of electronic health records. To earn these incentive payments, providers were expected to demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology according to metrics which were linked to certain goals for the program, such as improving efficiency and coordination of care, reducing disparities, etc. The program was designed to reward early adopters, as the payments decreased after the first two years.