Ocular Telehealth, 1st Edition

By: April Maa, MD

ISBN: 9780323832045

Pub Date: March 11, 2022

Reviewed By:  Theresa Cassidy, OD (Southern College of Optometry) 

Description  

This book uses clinical experience and evidence-based sources to provide an overview of telehealth as it relates to ophthalmic and optometric care as well as guidance on the implementation and future of telehealth in those fields and their subspecialties. 

Purpose  

This book is meant to be a practical tool for eye care professionals, which will assist them in successfully applying and utilizing telehealth in the spirit of providing quality, affordable, and accessible patient care. The book meets this goal and is both enjoyable and informative to read. 

Audience  

The target audience includes optometrists and ophthalmologists. It would also be useful to students, residents, and technicians of both fields. The authors are various highly qualified professionals including ophthalmologists, optometrists, researchers, and program directors. The editor is a respected director of tele-specialty care at the Veterans Health Administration and an associate professor of ophthalmology at Emory University. 

Features  

In its early chapters, this book addresses telehealth definitions and the strengths and limitations of telehealth in various specialty fields of eye care, including anterior and posterior segment pathology, pediatrics, neuro-ophthalmology, and low vision rehabilitation. The photos in these chapters, though somewhat small at times, work to support the text. Vision therapy and contact lens exams are not topics of significant discussion. The book also highlights considerations for telehealth’s implementation and function. The chapter on technology includes many useful figures and is helpful for navigating several types of equipment that are currently available. 

Billing, coding, and reimbursement also has its own dedicated chapter for those interested in how to bill telehealth in their practice. I thought that the inclusion of ethical and legal considerations and quality monitoring was particularly interesting since these areas come up in discussions about telehealth frequently and are important to ensuring quality patient care. The last chapters focus on the future of telehealth in terms of data analytics and artificial intelligence, and on the education of future providers. The book serves as a good basis for practitioners wanting to add (or who have already added) telehealth to their current practice and is informative for anyone in the field with an interest in telehealth. 

Assessment   

This book provides a practical guide to optometric and ophthalmic telehealth and the specialties within those fields. The tables and figures are useful, and the information is well organized. The editor has managed to put together an impressive array of topics relating to ocular telehealth in a thorough, concise text for eye care providers. 

©Doody’s Review Service, 2022, Theresa Cassidy, OD (Southern College of Optometry)

Doody’s Score: 97 – 5 Stars! 

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