Background: During the COVID 19 pandemic, Keratoconus patient care moved from inperson clinics to virtual care. We surveyed patients satisfaction with the new virtual clinic model.
Materials and Methods:We assessed the views of keratoconus patients enrolled in the novel virtual service between 1 June and 31 July 2020 in individual structured telephone interviews using Likert questions.Results: Of the 88 patients enrolled, the opinions of 69 patients could be evaluated (78.4%).Compared to previous in-person visits, mean waiting times for diagnostic examinations dropped from 43 (±32) min to 4 (± 3) min (p<0.001). The majority of patients (68; 99%) were satisfied or very satisfied with the overall service irrespective of the communication channel (telephone or video). A majority also indicated a desire to continue attending the virtual keratoconus clinic after the pandemic and supported the idea of decentralized sites for future diagnostic measurements.Discussion: A novel virtual service to monitor keratoconus progression was well received and was associated with shorter waiting times. There was a strong interest on the part of patients to further develop the virtual keratoconus clinic.Conclusions: This study demonstrates that keratoconus patients managed very well the conversion from in-person to virtual care. A solid majority of keratoconus patients also supported further expansion of the virtual consultations to a completely decentralized telemedicine model.
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