Quality and Diagnostic Utility of Mydriatic Smartphone Photography: The Smartphone Ophthalmoscopy Reliability Trial

Abstract

Background and objective: Establish quality and diagnostic utility of mydriatic smartphone ophthalmoscopy (SO) fundus images compared to fundus camera (FC) images.

Patients and methods: In this prospective, cross-sectional study, 94 consecutive patients in an urban eye emergency department underwent SO and FC fundus imaging via one of three study arms: medical student 1 (MS1), medical student 2 (MS2), and ophthalmology resident (OR). Images of 188 eyes were graded for overall quality by two masked reviewers, and observed critical fundus findings were compared to dilated fundus examination documentation.

Results: SO images were higher quality in the OR arm than in the MS1 and MS2 arms (P < .017). There were no differences in FC image quality between photographers (all P > .328). In the OR arm, SO images detected 74.3% of critical fundus findings, whereas FC images detected 77.1%.

Conclusion: SO produces fundus images approaching the quality and diagnostic utility of traditional FC photographs.