The vision care in Finland is about to start to use the national patient information system called Kanta. In Kanta the patient’s information can be seen and modified by any optician or optometrist. This emphasizes the importance of conformity and preciseness in documentation. The ethical council of optometry in Finland, OEN, has given instructions about the appropriate examinations and documentation in contact lens fitting. Though in the field the documentation of contact lens fitting doesn’t always follow the given instructions.
We wanted to find out how to use a Smartscope Pro camera by Optomed in contact lens fitting and documentation. We were interested to know how to exploit the pictures and video material of the front part of the eye from the first contact lens fitting to the check-up. Smartscope Pro is made by Optomed and it is a handheld fundus camera and it can be also used for taking pictures and videos of the front part of the eye.
Our study was qualitative and we surveyed two opticians who had used the camera. They had used Smartscope pro camera in contact lens fittings with their own clients. The interview was divided in themes.
By the interviews the camera was useful in contact lens fitting, especially in challenging fittings and teaching. It was also useful in check-ups when the next optician could see the pictures or the videos taken of the client’s eye.
The interprofessional collaboration between opticians and eye doctors is about to increase in the future. It would be interesting to study how they could benefit the visual material in consultation. Also the usage of visual material in documentation in the Kanta system could be an interesting subject for the next thesis in the future.