In today’s environment the consumer is educated and demanding of quality care from health professionals, and the consequent awareness of this fact has seen an explosion in technology available for exploring a wide range of functions at the primary level which were previously the domain of the tertiary specialist.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the eyecare field, particularly in the aspect of visual field analysis.
It has always been known visual fields provided a range of information in a non-invasive and straightforward manner, but constraints of time and space meant this valuable technique was under utilized.
The advent of the early computer driven field analysers changed the status quo only minimally due to high costs and poor reliability. A range of new machines has now seen the situation alter to one where all ophthalmologists and most optometrists are equipped to test a patient’s field of view.
The Medmont Automated Field Analyser has become the instrument of choice for more than two thousand eye care practitioners worldwide due to its ease of use and affordability compared to other technologies. It is fair to say that in Australia and New Zealand it is now the gold standard in terms of field analysis, with traditional equipment falling out of favour due to cost and stagnant software development.
The M 700 now works within the Medmont Studio platform enabling full three dimensional colour representations, multiple prints, comparison, regression analysis, zoom and pan facilities from a range of test modalities that take less time than other machines due to more sophisticated algorithms. Simply put, Medmont have stolen a march on their opposition.
Because Medmont are relatively new, and because their range and presentation of data is unfamiliar to many, learning to interpret results and make diagnoses is a challenge. For this reason we are producing, in conjunction with the Medmont team, an Atlas of Visual Fields on CD-ROM specific to the M 700 Analyser. This resource tool will have the features of the Studio software so that it will educate the user in the use of the new technology and technique as well as provide an easy to use reference guide for the interpretation of visual fields. The Atlas contains images sourced through other Medmont technology with some outsourcing of data where applicable.
In this work, we are indebted to the continuing support provided by Professor Tony Molteno and his outstanding team at Dunedin Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department, particularly Consultant Ophthalmologist David Peart, without whom this project would not have been viable.