mTOCS: Mobile Teleophthalmology in Community Settings to improve Eye-health in Diabetic Population

TL;DR

This paper introduces mTOCS, a mobile teleophthalmology framework designed to facilitate eye screenings in community settings for diabetics, improving access, awareness, and health outcomes among underserved populations.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel software framework, mTOCS, enabling community-based eye screenings with native language support and collaboration between community partners and healthcare providers.

Findings

Increased screening rates in community settings.

Improved health outcomes for diabetic eye disease.

High acceptance among community participants.

Abstract

Diabetic eye diseases, particularly Diabetic Retinopathy,is the leading cause of vision loss worldwide and can be prevented by early diagnosis through annual eye-screenings. However, cost, healthcare disparities, cultural limitations, etc. are the main barriers against regular screening. Eye-screenings conducted in community events with native-speaking staffs can facilitate regular check-up and development of awareness among underprivileged communities compared to traditional clinical settings. However, there are not sufficient technology support for carrying out the screenings in community settings with collaboration from community partners using native languages. In this paper, we have proposed and discussed the development of our software framework, "Mobile Teleophthalomogy in Community Settings (mTOCS)", that connects the community partners with eye-specialists and the Health Department staffs of respective cities to expedite this screening process. Moreover, we have presented the analysis from our study on the acceptance of community-based screening methods among the community participants as well as on the effectiveness of mTOCS among the community partners. The results have evinced that mTOCS has been capable of providing an improved rate of eye-screenings and better health outcomes.