SPOTLIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY & TECHNIQUE

Zeiss FORUM: a tool for managing clinical images

Software prepares and organizes patient data for easy retrieval.

By Bill Kekevian, Senior Associate Editor

The FORUM (Carl Zeiss Meditech, Inc. Dublin, Calif. www.zeiss.com) is image-management software that organizes data gathered from such devices as visual field analyzers and OCT in a format designed to improve workflow.

“What has changed my workflow is that I don’t have to sit back and go through old charts. I just, with the click of a mouse, pick the exams I want and there they are, ready for me to review,” says Amin Ashrafzadeh, MD, of Modesto Eye Center in Modesto, Calif.

With FORUM, doctors can review several images from different machines at once.

A HUB FOR DATA

As Dr. Ashrafzadeh describes it, going back and forth between different equipment and printing specific reports is not only a drag on workflow, but it’s ineffective. “It used to be if you wanted to get the glaucoma progression analysis, you or the tech would have to go back to the instrument and produce a report, and the report was limited in the number of studies picked by default by the instruments,” he says. “Now, with FORUM you can include them all, or select as desired. If you don’t like one of the baselines, you can unclick that study and take it out of the equation.”

AUTOMATED EXAM LANE

In many practices, technicians perform elements of most exams. FORUM does the legwork for the technicians. It automatically populates the instruments, such as the visual field analyzer and OCTs, so that when the patient comes in, those instruments “know” the patient is there. Then, it compiles the data it collects from the instruments and displays it in an orderly layout.

PATIENT EDUCATION

With the interactive display FORUM possesses, Dr. Ashrafzadeh says, “The patient becomes your partner in disease management. When they understand what they’re looking at, they are more energized about using medications.”

He recalls a recent case of a patient with a corneal intraepithelial neoplasia. He initially put the patient on interferon. The way FORUM displays slit lamp photos helped him and the patient see the treatment wasn’t working.

“I changed him over to mitomycin C and you could see clearly within two months he was completely clear. In this instance, the patient became very in tuned with and understanding of making a major expense.”

FORUM APPS

FORUM offers a variety of accessories such as LINK Tools (which connects devices that are not DICOM compliant), ASSIST Match (which identifies inconsistencies in the patient record) and a Glaucoma Workplace function. OM