Efficiency when scanning old ophthalmologic slides

To digitise our old archive and evaluate the efficiency of this task, both in medical and economic terms.

All slides and negatives (8254) archived in our clinic were collected, digitised with a 5-megapixel slide scanner. The images were taken from 1972 to 1999. Quality and utility of images were taken into account, as far as costs of the task (up to 2100 euros), all the work done by the same ophthalmologist.

Of those identifiable, 62% of the patients had already died. Only 1.5% were archived for use; 70 images for teaching reasons and 60 for medical reasons, being incorporated into the patient's history. About 210h were spent on scanning, identifying, checking and uploading images. 84% corresponded to retinal pathology, 4% to glaucomatous pathology, 3% to anterior segment pathology and the last 9% to learning material. The quality of most images is good, and, in some cases, were important for the correct diagnosis of the pathology. If only medical reasons are taken into account, the number of images uploaded is very low when working with archives older than 50 years.

Although there was a low percentage of scanned images, the task was efficient because of a low cost. Images older than 50 years must be evaluated before scanning because of their low utility.