Caius Goh, Marilyn Puah, Zhi Hong Toh, Joewee Boon, Debbie Boey, Ryan Tay, Ashita A Sule, Renee Liu, Xing-Er Ong, Aditya Kalra, Satvik Gupta, Andres Rousselot, William Rojas-Carabali, Bryan Ang, Rupesh Agrawal
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: With technological advancements and the growing prevalence of smartphones, ophthalmology has opportunely harnessed medical technology for visual function assessment as a home monitoring tool for patients. Ophthalmology applications that offer these have likewise become more readily available in recent years, which may be used for early detection and monitoring of eye conditions. To date, no review has been done to evaluate and compare the utility of these apps. This review provides an updated overview of visual functions assessment using mobile applications available on the Apple App and Google Play Stores, enabling eye care professionals to make informed selections of their use in ophthalmology.
Methods: We reviewed 160 visual function applications available on Apple iTunes and the Google Play Stores. The parameters surveyed included types of visual function tests, the involvement of healthcare professionals in their development, cost, and download count.
Results: Visual tests, including visual acuity and color vision tests, were most common among apps surveyed, and they were comparable to traditional clinical methods. Certain applications were more widely used, some of which have had studies conducted to assess the reliability of test results. Limitations of these apps include the absence of healthcare professionals' involvement in their development, the lack of approval by regulatory authorities and minimal cloud-based features to communicate results to healthcare professionals.
Conclusions: The prevalence and easy access of visual function testing applications present opportunities to enhance teleophthalmology through early detection and monitoring of eye conditions. Future development to enhance the quality of the apps should involve regulatory bodies and medical professionals, followed up by research using larger samples with longer follow-up studies to review the reliability and validity of ophthalmology applications. This would potentially enable these applications to be incorporated into the comprehensive assessment and follow-up care of patients' eye health.
导言：随着技术的进步和智能手机的日益普及，眼科已适时地利用医疗技术进行视觉功能评估，作为患者的家庭监测工具。近年来，提供这些功能的眼科应用程序也越来越容易获得，可用于早期检测和监测眼部状况。迄今为止，还没有人对这些应用程序的实用性进行过评估和比较。本综述对苹果应用商店和谷歌应用商店中的移动应用程序进行视觉功能评估的最新情况进行了概述，使眼科专业人员能够对这些应用程序在眼科中的应用做出明智的选择：我们审查了苹果 iTunes 和 Google Play 商店中的 160 款视觉功能应用程序。调查的参数包括视功能测试的类型、医护人员参与开发的情况、成本和下载次数：结果：在接受调查的应用程序中，视力测试（包括视力敏锐度和色觉测试）最为常见，它们与传统的临床方法不相上下。某些应用程序的使用范围更广，其中一些还进行了研究，以评估测试结果的可靠性。这些应用程序的局限性包括：没有医护人员参与开发、没有获得监管机构的批准以及向医护人员传达结果的云端功能极少：视觉功能测试应用程序的普及和易于获取为通过早期检测和监测眼部状况来加强远程眼科提供了机会。今后，监管机构和医疗专业人员应参与到提高应用程序质量的开发工作中来，并利用更大的样本和更长时间的跟踪研究来审查眼科应用程序的可靠性和有效性。这将有可能使这些应用程序被纳入病人眼部健康的综合评估和后续护理中。
期刊介绍：
Aims and Scope
Ophthalmology and Therapy is an international, open access, peer-reviewed (single-blind), and rapid publication journal. The scope of the journal is broad and will consider all scientifically sound research from preclinical, clinical (all phases), observational, real-world, and health outcomes research around the use of ophthalmological therapies, devices, and surgical techniques.
The journal is of interest to a broad audience of pharmaceutical and healthcare professionals and publishes original research, reviews, case reports/series, trial protocols and short communications such as commentaries and editorials. Ophthalmology and Therapy will consider all scientifically sound research be it positive, confirmatory or negative data. Submissions are welcomed whether they relate to an international and/or a country-specific audience, something that is crucially important when researchers are trying to target more specific patient populations. This inclusive approach allows the journal to assist in the dissemination of quality research, which may be considered of insufficient interest by other journals.
Rapid Publication
The journal’s publication timelines aim for a rapid peer review of 2 weeks. If an article is accepted it will be published 3–4 weeks from acceptance. The rapid timelines are achieved through the combination of a dedicated in-house editorial team, who manage article workflow, and an extensive Editorial and Advisory Board who assist with peer review. This allows the journal to support the rapid dissemination of research, whilst still providing robust peer review. Combined with the journal’s open access model this allows for the rapid, efficient communication of the latest research and reviews, fostering the advancement of ophthalmic therapies.
Open Access
All articles published by Ophthalmology and Therapy are open access.
Personal Service
The journal’s dedicated in-house editorial team offer a personal “concierge service” meaning authors will always have an editorial contact able to update them on the status of their manuscript. The editorial team check all manuscripts to ensure that articles conform to the most recent COPE, GPP and ICMJE publishing guidelines. This supports the publication of ethically sound and transparent research.
Digital Features and Plain Language Summaries
Ophthalmology and Therapy offers a range of additional features designed to increase the visibility, readership and educational value of the journal’s content. Each article is accompanied by key summary points, giving a time-efficient overview of the content to a wide readership. Articles may be accompanied by plain language summaries to assist readers who have some knowledge of, but not in-depth expertise in, the area to understand the scientific content and overall implications of the article. The journal also provides the option to include various types of digital features including animated abstracts, video abstracts, slide decks, audio slides, instructional videos, infographics, podcasts and animations. All additional features are peer reviewed to the same high standard as the article itself. If you consider that your paper would benefit from the inclusion of a digital feature, please let us know. Our editorial team are able to create high-quality slide decks and infographics in-house, and video abstracts through our partner Research Square, and would be happy to assist in any way we can. For further information about digital features, please contact the journal editor (see ‘Contact the Journal’ for email address), and see the ‘Guidelines for digital features and plain language summaries’ document under ‘Submission guidelines’.
For examples of digital features please visit our showcase page https://springerhealthcare.com/expertise/publishing-digital-features/
Publication Fees
Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be required to pay the mandatory Rapid Service Fee of €5250/$6000/£4300. The journal will consider fee discounts and waivers for developing countries and this is decided on a case by case basis.
Peer Review Process
Upon submission, manuscripts are assessed by the editorial team to ensure they fit within the aims and scope of the journal and are also checked for plagiarism. All suitable submissions are then subject to a comprehensive single-blind peer review. Reviewers are selected based on their relevant expertise and publication history in the subject area. The journal has an extensive pool of editorial and advisory board members who have been selected to assist with peer review based on the afore-mentioned criteria.
At least two extensive reviews are required to make the editorial decision, with the exception of some article types such as Commentaries, Editorials, and Letters which are generally reviewed by one member of the Editorial Board. Where reviewer recommendations are conflicted, the editorial board will be contacted for further advice and a presiding decision. Manuscripts are then either accepted, rejected or authors are required to make major or minor revisions (both reviewer comments and editorial comments may need to be addressed). Once a revised manuscript is re-submitted, it is assessed along with the responses to reviewer comments and if it has been adequately revised it will be accepted for publication. Accepted manuscripts are then copyedited and typeset by the production team before online publication. Appeals against decisions following peer review are considered on a case-by-case basis and should be sent to the journal editor.
Preprints
We encourage posting of preprints of primary research manuscripts on preprint servers, authors’ or institutional websites, and open communications between researchers whether on community preprint servers or preprint commenting platforms. Posting of preprints is not considered prior publication and will not jeopardize consideration in our journals. Authors should disclose details of preprint posting during the submission process or at any other point during consideration in one of our journals. Once the manuscript is published, it is the author’s responsibility to ensure that the preprint record is updated with a publication reference, including the DOI and a URL link to the published version of the article on the journal website.
Please follow the link for further information on preprint sharing:
https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/journal-author/journal-author-helpdesk/submission/1302#c16721550
Copyright
Ophthalmology and Therapy''s content is published open access under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License, which allows users to read, copy, distribute, and make derivative works for non-commercial purposes from the material, as long as the author of the original work is cited. The author assigns the exclusive right to any commercial use of the article to Springer. For more information about the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial License, click here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0.
Contact
For more information about the journal, including pre-submission enquiries, please contact christopher.vautrinot@springer.com.
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