A New Way to Wow Your Patients and Help Them Understand Their Disease

Guest blog post by Phil Heifetz, President and CEO, EyeIC, Inc.

Recalling an earlier post here, it’s been well-documented that patients have difficulty understanding medical information.  This challenge is particularly tough when it comes to understanding disease progression from images. In specialties like ophthalmology, there is a heavy reliance upon imaging diagnostics. When a patient fails to comprehend the message that their disease is worsening, the result can be poor adherence, poor outcomes and ultimately lower quality of care and patient satisfaction. In the coming world of accountable care, this also means a direct hit to provider income.

Below is an example of the MatchedFlicker software in action. The proprietary algorithm automatically aligns the 2 images and superimposes them so the animation clearly shows all the changes, no matter how subtle.

Here are a few examples of indications where MatchedFlicker can help:

1. Glaucoma:  Photography (animation of longitudinal images) is the best possible way to detect and follow hemorrhages, which are not seen on OCT and challenging to detect by examination.  MatchedFlicker also enables clinicians to rapidly detect and follow changes in the optic disc, as well as vessel movement and nerve fiber layer changes. Use the animations to help explain your findings to patients and also to help them understand your treatment plan.
2. Diabetic Retinopathy:  Immediately see and follow multiple changes in the vasculature. Use the flickers to help reinforce positive patient behavior (no change), or to demonstrate the effects of nonadherence as disease progresses. When a diabetic patient sees what’s happening in their own eye they may better understand how that same process occurring in other organs (eg, heart, brain, kidneys) can lead to detrimental outcomes.
3. Dry AMD (drusen):  Similarly, MatchedFlicker can be used to show patients both changes in drusen and geographic atrophy. It also works very nicely with FAF images!
4. Choroidal Nevi Use MatchedFlicker as a simple tool to detect subtle changes in nevi and show your patients the animations.

Eyemaginations recently hosted a webinar with Dr. Nathan Radcliffe of Weill Cornell Medical College where he spoke about how he uses MatchedFlicker in some of these applications within his practice. Be sure to join Eyemaginations as we host a webinar on July 31^th with Harry Green, OD about the use of MatchedFlicker in the Telemedicine environment.

MatchedFlicker is available as a discounted add-on for existing Eyemaginations subscribers, just call your sales representative or account manager for more information. You can learn more at www.eyeic.com, where you can also sign up for a 14-day trial.