Remote Eye Examination System Phoropter Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Access to eye care is limited in remote and small towns due to the lack of on-site eye care providers, leading to inconsistent and costly care, particularly affecting children, and resulting in significant economic losses from untreated vision impairments.
Innovation Solution
A remote eye examination system (REES) that allows non-licensed staff to perform refractive examinations using intuitive software, enabling remote control of phoropters and multi-colored lamps to facilitate accurate and efficient eye care, reducing costs and increasing accessibility by allowing fractional optometrist employment and consistent coverage across multiple locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a physical doctor is stationed at each location to provide eye care, then the quality and reliability of care is improved, but the cost and complexity of maintaining staff at multiple locations increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a telemedicine system as an intermediary between the doctor and patient. The system includes a remote examination device at the patient's location that connects to a central server, allowing a single doctor to remotely examine multiple patients across different locations without physically being present at each site. This mediator enables one doctor to serve multiple locations simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the doctor's presence through the telemedicine system. The doctor's examination capabilities are replicated and transmitted remotely to multiple locations via the networked examination devices, allowing the same diagnostic functions to be performed at multiple sites without requiring multiple physical doctors.
2Ease of operation
If doctors travel to remote locations to provide eye care, then accessibility for patients is improved, but the cost and time required for service delivery increases
Solution Approach 1:
The telemedicine system acts as an intermediary that eliminates the need for doctor travel. The examination device at the remote location connects to the doctor via network, allowing the doctor to provide care remotely without traveling to the patient's location, thus saving time while maintaining accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical system of physical travel with an electronic/information-based system. Instead of the doctor physically moving to remote locations, the system uses network communication and digital transmission to deliver examination capabilities remotely, substituting physical movement with electronic data flow.
3Productivity
If multiple doctors are employed to cover multiple locations, then the availability of care is improved, but the cost of providing services increases
Solution Approach 1:
The telemedicine examination device is designed to be universal and location-independent. A single doctor can use the same system to serve multiple locations and multiple patients sequentially or concurrently, making the doctor's capability universal rather than location-specific. This multi-functionality allows one doctor to perform the work of multiple doctors across different sites.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables continuous examination of multiple patients by the same doctor without interruption or relocation. The digital network allows seamless transition between patients and locations, maintaining continuous productive action rather than interrupting for travel or setup between appointments at different physical sites.
4Ease of operation
If remote examination devices are deployed at multiple locations, then accessibility and consistency of care are improved, but the device complexity and infrastructure requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex diagnostic intelligence from the remote device and concentrates it at the central server. The examination device at remote locations contains only the essential interface and transmission capabilities, while the sophisticated image processing, analysis, and diagnostic functions are extracted and performed remotely at the central location, simplifying the on-site device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A remote eye examination method includes initiating a remote chat session between a local computing device coupled to a phoropter, and a remote computer, and initializing the phoropter for remote control by the remote computer. Then, a multi-colored lamp is activated in a first color until a determination that a refractory examination utilizing the phoropter has commenced. Thereafter, responsive to a determination that the examination has commenced, the multi-colored lamp changes to a second color, and movement of portions of the phoropter are commanded as directed by the remote computer, data is recorded into a patient record and a progression of the examination monitored. Finally, on condition that a threshold period of time before a conclusion of the refractory examination is detected, the multi-colored lamp changes to a third color and upon conclusion of the examination, a message transmitted to a remote account indicating access to the patient record.