ReVise Study – Co-designing and evaluating an implementation model for ophthalmic remote consultation with vision self-testing

When we talk about vision testing often the first thought that comes to mind is taking a trip down to the hospital eye clinic or optician and having an eye examination with an eyecare specialist. With new digital technology, it is possible to self test your vision and have a telephone or video appointment with a specialist  in the comfort of your own home. These types of appointments are sometimes called ‘remote consultations’.

Thrive by Design will be working alongside Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, Northwest Anglia NHS Trust and Manchester University Hospital NHS Trust as part of a research study, funded by the NIHR Invention for Innovation (i4i) programme, to explore how practical and accessible this approach could be.

DigiVis is a web app that has been developed by NHS ophthalmologists and orthoptists to enable people to self-test their vision. It is a quick and efficient way to test and monitor vision in patients aged 4 years and over, minimising the number of hospital visits needed.

By supporting remote consultation, the web app may reduce extensive wait times in clinics, reduce time taken off work and school to attend appointments and enable treatable eye problems to be detected earlier, reducing the risk of preventable sight loss.  

Thrive by Design will support the study by engaging with people in communities local to the participating NHS sites. This work will then inform the co-design of an implementation model that will set out how this new way of supporting people could be offered.

We will explore how remote consultations that are supported by self-vision testing may work for different people, including: 

• What may influence how people are able to access and use the technology and interact with their eyecare specialist using a telephone or video channel (barriers and enablers) 

• What considerations will need to be designed into the implementation model to promote equitable access to eyecare for different people. 

The implementation model will then be tested across the three NHS sites. The sites will invite people to have telephone or video appointments with their eyecare specialists and use the vision self-test technology. Learnings from this testing will inform improvements to the implementation model and inform future models of care. 

To find out more or to get in touch with the team about this project, please contact thrivebydesign.lypft@nhs.net.