[Telemedicine in ophthalmology: an appropriateness document developed through an e-consensus using the RAND/UCLA...

Telemedicine is a key component of Digital Health (e-Health) and constitutes a key tool capable, through information and communication technologies, of broadening access to care, providing continuity of assistance, and improving the monitoring of patients with chronic diseases. This study investigated clinicians' perspectives on the use of telemedicine in ophthalmology, analyzing the results of an e-consensus conducted with the RAND/UCLA method, to evaluate the appropriateness of potential clinical practice recommendations (CPRs) for these technologies. Two rounds of questions have been administered between June and October 2024 to a panel of 28 clinicians out of 70 invited (40%) and an engineer with specific experience in telemedicine for the first round and 27 for the second plus the engineer. The outputs - albeit based on small numbers - suggest that, in Italy, telemedicine is judged most appropriate for non-strictly clinical phases (such as medical history collection, reporting, defining patient-satisfaction goals, and follow-up). By contrast, considerable uncertainty persists regarding its use for diagnostic procedures or for identifying diseases.