Remote Imaging Capture with Widefield Swept-Source OCT Angiography During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a widespread impact on the health sector worldwide, both in the clinical and research subsector. This has necessitated for the invention of protocols compliant with social distancing policies to efficiently tackle the current needs. Our aim is to describe a novel remote imaging technique, which helped us continue our research with widefield swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (WF SS-OCTA).

As a part of this cross-sectional observational study from August 2020 to September 2020 at Massachusetts Eye and Ear (MEE), we used our institute approved remote desktop, outside of MEE, to gain full access to the on-site WF SS-OCTA device in the imaging room for the purpose of remote imaging. With only the patient being in the imaging room, effective communication was established via video conferencing on an encrypted tablet computer device for the entire procedure.

We imaged four patients with various retinal pathologies, aged 32-69 years. All images obtained were of high quality and signal strength (median score 9/10 for both) and all patients reported a highly satisfactory, comfortable, and safe experience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

This novel method is better for remote imaging compared to the previously described techniques as it is time and cost effective, requires limited resources without compromising the image quality or patient satisfaction and adheres to the various guidelines for infection control, most importantly social distancing. As a paradigm shift, this can also be employed in future for setups with limited staff like busy emergency departments or a rural setup with limited access or difficult commute, in the "new-normal" era.