Technology available to healthcare
The technology and telecommunications sector has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years. Due to the arrival of covid19, digitization has greatly accelerated in aspects that seemed impossible to us, such as education or health.
An unprecedented opportunity has been created for specialists such as ophthalmologists to adapt to new models of care using telehealth supported by digital innovations. These digital innovations include artificial intelligence (AI), fifth-generation (5G) telecommunications networks, and the Internet of Things (IoT), creating an interdependent ecosystem that offers opportunities to develop new models of eye care that address the challenges of COVID-19. and beyond. These developments could address some of the most pressing challenges facing healthcare providers and policymakers, including universal, equitable and sustainable healthcare coverage for an aging and growing population. They can fundamentally change disease detection, diagnosis, and monitoring, enable more accurate profiling of disease progression, and refine and/or personalize treatments.
Artificial intelligence
Ophthalmology has thrived in some of these areas in part due to its extensive imaging-based research. Telehealth and artificial intelligence bring synchronous solutions to the challenges faced by ophthalmologists and healthcare providers around the world.
Additionally, as countries around the world have initiated a series of escalating containment and mitigation measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, the provision of eye care services globally has been significantly affected. As eye services adapt and form a “new normal”, the rapid adoption of some digital and telehealth innovations during the pandemic is also being discussed.