Comparison of Ophthalmoscopy Findings Using PanOptic vs PanOptic + iExaminer

Direct ophthalmoscopy is a vital skill for screening emergent conditions as well as chronic ocular pathologies for nonophthalmic physicians. Many eye care practitioners are first exposed to this tool during their medical education and are expected to have a certain degree of proficiency with it down the line. This skill requires practice, however, and given that there is a limited amount of time and exposure, it is not surprising that there is a general lack of familiarity and confidence among students and physicians with using the direct ophthalmoscope (Gilmour et al.,2017; Schulz et al., 2014; Day et al.,2017).

A myriad of techniques and models have attempted to change this and improve the efficacy in teaching direct ophthalmoscopy. Studies have shown that students prefer learning how to use the direct ophthalmoscope with human subjects rather than simulators, and that the students prefer using fundus photographs to learn important diagnostic findings over the ophthalmoscope (Kelly et al.,2013). There have also been studies comparing the direct ophthalmoscope to the PanOptic, which gives a fixed working distance from the patient and a larger field of view (Day et al.,2017). These studies have noted more "ease of use" and accuracy in using the PanOptic among first year medical students and physicians (McComiskie et al.,2004; Petrushkin et al., 2012). New technological advances such as the iExaminer application have also been recently introduced, allowing the eye care physicians to take fundus images on their smart phone using a smart phone application and attachment to the PanOptic. Studies have shown the iExaminer application is able to produce "clinically adequate" fundus images (Day et al.,2017).

From the literature review, there have not been any studies that compare the PanOptic alone versus the PanOptic with the iExaminer application as an introductory teaching tool for medical students. The iExaminer will not only allow the user to utilize the view obtained from the PanOptic, but also allow an instructor to observe and help coach the user on relevant findings and take pictures for future reference or instruction. This provides a potentially effective learning device which can help users accurately identify more relevant ophthalmic findings. The investigators also believe that this will help increase the medical students confidence level and encourage them to practice with these devices again at future opportunities.