{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]],"date-time":"2026-01-05T17:56:03Z","timestamp":1767635763874,"version":"3.48.0"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]],"date-time":"2026-01-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767571200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Case Coulter Translational Research Partnership","award":["CON232994-P674"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CON232994-P674"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100005170","name":"Ohio Development Services Agency","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["TECG20232874"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TECG20232874"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100005170","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Case Western Reserve University Technology Transfer Office","award":["CTP23-143"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CTP23-143"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Bioengineering"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study evaluated the feasibility, image quality, and referral accuracy of a patient-operated optical coherence tomography (OCT) device (SightSync) compared with technician-acquired Heidelberg OCT. This study was conducted in a Veterans Affairs retina clinic (Cleveland, Ohio), resulting in a predominantly male (98%) study population representative of the local veteran demographics. One hundred patients attempted self-administered OCT imaging after brief instruction, yielding 118 successful scans (59% of eyes) with no significant association between scan success and age, visual acuity, or diagnosis. Quantitative analysis of 142 paired images showed that SightSync produced interpretable scans with comparable sharpness to Heidelberg OCT, though signal- and intensity-based metrics (signal-to-noise ratio; SNR, contrast-to-noise ratio; CNR, entropy, pixel intensity; p90) were lower, consistent with hardware differences between a compact patient-operated prototype and a clinical-grade system. Among 121 high-quality SightSync scans, referral decisions demonstrated strong agreement with Heidelberg OCT, with a sensitivity of 83.9%, specificity of 75.6%, and a negative predictive value of 93.2%, indicating reliable exclusion of clinically significant pathology. These findings demonstrate that patients can independently acquire clinically interpretable OCT images and that SightSync provides safe, conservative triage performance\u2014supporting its potential as a scalable community-based retinal imaging solution\u2014while a review of unsuccessful scans has identified prototype modifications expected to further improve device feasibility.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bioengineering13010061","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]],"date-time":"2026-01-05T13:35:47Z","timestamp":1767620147000},"page":"61","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Expanding Access to Retinal Imaging Through Patient-Operated Optical Coherence Tomography in a Veterans Affairs Retina Clinic"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2166-6595","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alan B.","family":"Dogan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, VA 24016, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Katherine G.","family":"Barber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-8620-6671","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Brigid C.","family":"Devine","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, OH 44272, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Blanche","family":"Kuo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine\/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9053-3649","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Colin K.","family":"Drummond","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case School of Engineering School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ankur A.","family":"Mehra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA"},{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine\/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Eric S.","family":"Eleff","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2098-3828","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Warren M.","family":"Sobol","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA"},{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine\/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"236","DOI":"10.1038\/s41433-020-01263-6","article-title":"Optical coherence tomography in the 2020s-outside the eye clinic","volume":"35","author":"Chopra","year":"2021","journal-title":"Eye"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4324","DOI":"10.1167\/iovs.15-16444","article-title":"Barriers to Follow-Up and Strategies to Improve Adherence to Appointments for Care of Chronic Eye Diseases","volume":"56","author":"Thompson","year":"2015","journal-title":"Investig. 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