Test Reliability and Compliance to a Twelve-Month Visual Field Telemedicine Study in Glaucoma Patients

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Technology
• Digital Health

Background:

• Glaucoma management requires regular visual field monitoring.
• Telemedicine offers a potential solution for remote patient assessment.
• Assessing the reliability and compliance of home-based visual field testing is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the reliability and patient compliance with a weekly visual field telemedicine (VFTM) schedule.
• To determine the concordance of VFTM results with in-clinic visual field assessments.
• To evaluate VFTM as a tool for monitoring glaucoma progression.

Main Methods:

• A 12-month trial using the Melbourne Rapid Fields (MRF-home, MRFh) iPad application for weekly home monitoring.
• Participants attended 6-month clinical reviews for comparison with in-clinic tests (MRF-clinic and Humphrey Field Analyzer).
• Compliance was defined as weekly testing (7 ± 1 days), and reliability was assessed using false positives and fixation loss (<33%).

Main Results:

• Eighty-five percent of patients adopted VFTM, with 75% compliance to weekly home monitoring.
• Test reliability for home examinations was 65%, lower than in-clinic HFA reliability (85%).
• VFTM demonstrated good concordance with in-clinic methods, accurately detecting two cases of clinical progression.

Conclusions:

• Weekly visual field telemedicine (VFTM) demonstrates high patient compliance and good agreement with in-clinic assessments.
• VFTM is a reliable and viable method for monitoring glaucoma patients' visual fields between scheduled clinical visits.
• This technology facilitates early detection of disease progression in glaucoma management.