The field of ophthalmology is transforming from examining eyes directly to using images for monitoring disease progression and intervening to prevent vision loss. Reviewing digital images is now essential to how ophthalmologists diagnose and treat eye conditions.
By the early 2020s, KP’s antiquated system for managing digital images was not keeping up. “We were acquiring hundreds of thousands of images each year,” says Gregg Gayre, MD, TPMG chief technology officer and former TPMG chief of ophthalmology. “We needed to organize, access, pull up and process them, and make medical decisions on the fly.”
Dr. Gayre partnered with Bonnie Quiroz, MD, KP North Valley ophthalmologist and a member of the KP national technology standards committee, to completely overhaul and modernize the technology that KP doctors use to review digital eye images. Dr. Gayre had the strategic vision while Dr. Quiroz took the tactical lead on training and user acceptance.
KP ophthalmologists across all 8 regions now have the ability to quickly access and compare multiple images. “We built in functionality to give ophthalmologists what they want with the least number of clicks,” Dr. Quiroz says.
Poorab Sangani, MD, KP Northern California co-chair of ophthalmology chiefs, says, “All of us who work in ophthalmology went from absolutely frustrated to absolutely ecstatic in a span of less than two and a half years.”
The new system is also fully integrated with KP’s electronic medical record. “They came up with an order based workflow to integrate from one system to another, which reduced the time physicians spent manually entering images,” says Smita Rouillard, MD, TPMG associate executive director. “It was brilliant.”
The American Academy of Ophthalmology now describes KP as the model for digital eye imaging standardization. Drs. Gayre and Quiroz are working on expanding the new technology to additional image reliant KP specialties such as radiology and integrating artificial intelligence to further improve efficiency.
“The new system is reliable and fast, and we can do lots of things we couldn’t before,” says Robin Vora, MD, KP Northern California co-chair of ophthalmology chiefs. “Most importantly, the clinicians love it. We went from a pain point to a great source of pride.”