ReVise Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Co-designing and evaluating a real-world implementation model for remote consultation with vision self-testing. The ReVise study.
IRAS ID
326502
Contact name
Louise Allen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Aim: to develop and implement an effective remote eye consultation and vision self-testing service.
Background: NHS eye clinics conduct over 9 million appointments annually. Long backlogs cause avoidable blindness in hundreds of people every year, with ethnic minorities, older people and the poor most at risk. Remote consultation (by video or phone) can help increase service capacity and is generally popular with patients. Advantages include less time off work, less travel and better access to services for rural communities.
Currently, only 5% of eye consultations take place remotely, compared to the 30% NHS target. Every hospital eye consultation starts with a vision test using a letter chart. This is an important indicator of eye health. If vision could be self-tested at home or in the community, more patients could benefit from remote consultation. Self-monitoring could also enable early detection of visual change between appointments. This could encourage patient engagement with their care.
DigiVis is a CE marked online app which enables patients as young as four to accurately test their vision at home. We need to understand how to make remote consultation and vision self-testing as easy to use as possible so that everyone can benefit.
Methods: Using focus group interviews and surveys, we will engage with the staff and patients who will use the service. We will explore the difficulties that patients may have in accessing the technology and design ways of implementing the service to work around these barriers. We will assess how acceptance of the technology changes following implementation of the service model and analyse what is working well and what needs changing.
Dissemination: The optimised service model will be shared to enable successful uptake of the technology throughout the NHS. We will use public and NHS websites, journals and conferences to publicise our study results.REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/PR/0915
Date of REC Opinion
6 Sep 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion