Q&A: Harvey Uy on the power of digital images and records

Harvey Uy, MD, DPBO, FVRDP, a retina specialist from the Peregrine Eye and Laser Institute in the Philippines, discussed the transformative power of digital image management in ophthalmology. He highlighted how digital workflows reduce image review time, improve diagnostic confidence, and enhance patient understanding. Uy emphasized the potential of AI to revolutionize treatment strategies by analyzing imaging data and genetic information, ultimately providing more personalized patient care.

Note: The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ophthalmology Times: How do digital tool play a role in caring for patients?

Harvey Uy, MD, DPBO, FVRSP: OCT is now an essential part of retina practice, and it just amazes me how many doctors all over the world still use print documents to figure out what's happening to their patients. So now we have available image management software in digital form, and this allows doctors to very quickly review what's happening to the patient structurally over time.

We did a study that demonstrated that by using a digital workflow compared to looking at print images, you're able to decrease by half the time you need to review these images. We also show that the doctors in our practice overwhelmingly prefer to use a digital system compared to a print system. They get more confident in their diagnosis, and this also serves as a great tool for educating the patients. When the patients look at the digital images, they instantly understand what's happening to them, and when we make a management recommendation, we have a much higher conversion rate. So you have happy doctors, happy clinic staff, and happy patients.

OT: How does this impact how you think of the retina workplace?

Uy: I like to think of it as the retina workplace is a 5-dimensional tool, a 5D tool. So and in terms of accuracy, you can see the structural images of the retina in 3 dimensions. The fourth dimension is we're able to track what happens to these patients over time, how did they respond to our management over time? Then the fifth dimension is, when we input the treatments that we gave these patients, we're actually able to see how the patients respond to each treatment, and it helps us better plan the dosing regimen for these patients. So 5D, understand the structure in 3D how the patients do over time and see how they respond to the treatments.

OT: How do you think AI will impact the future of patient care and digital record keeping?

Uy: So I think AI is going to be a very valuable tool in many ways. Currently, with the Zeiss retina workplace, we're able to use the AI to instantly process all this imaging information and basically make it simple for doctors and patients to understand what's happening to the patient. But in the future, we can use the same imaging data and feed it into an AI just how what the patients are right now and how they respond to treatments. I think the AI should be able to process all of this and eventually recommend to us what for this particular patient, what is the best treatment strategy? What is the best treatment dosing of looking at these images now today, they would be very crude, 10 years from now, when we can actually be able to see on a cellular level, or even a molecular level, see what's happening to patients. I think we should be able to get a lot of clues that will help us figure out which treatments are best for what patient. Also, we should be able to get a lot of genetic data that's going to come online and use this genetic data to help us better figure out what's the best treatment for our patients. Embrace the future because it's a better future. We just have to understand it and utilize it.