• Anthony V Das, Padmaja K Rani, and Pravin K Vaddavalli.
• Department of eyeSmart EMR and AEye; Department of Tele Ophthalmology; Indian Health Outcomes Public Health and Economics Research Centre, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
• Indian J Ophthalmol. 2020 Jun 1; 68 (6): 1007-1012.

PurposeTo describe the experience of tele-consultations addressed at the centre of excellence of a multi-tier ophthalmology hospital network in India during the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.MethodsThis cross-sectional hospital-based study included 7,008 tele-consultations presenting between March 23rd and April 19th 2020. A three-level protocol was implemented to triage the calls. The data of patient queries were collected using a Google Form/Sheets and the tele-calls were returned using the patient information retrieved from the electronic medical record system.ResultsOverall, 7,008 tele-calls were addressed, of which 2,805 (40.02%) patients where a clinical-related query was answered were included for analysis. The most common queries were related to redness/pain/watering/blurring of vision (31.52%), closely followed by usage of medications (31.05%). The majority of the queries were directed to the department of cornea (34.15%), followed by retina (24.74%). Less than one-fifth of the patients were from the lower socio-economic class (16.08%) and one-fourth were new patients (23.96%). The most common advice given to the patient was related to management of medications (54.15%) followed by appointment related (17.79%). Emergency requests requiring further evaluation by an ophthalmologist accounted for a small percentage (16.36%) of patients.ConclusionTracking of tele-consultations and access to patient information from the electronic medical records enabled a timely response in an ongoing lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current experience provided valuable insights to the possibility of managing patient follow-up visits remotely in the future.

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