DOI: 10.3928/23258160-20260619-01 ISSN: 2325-8160

Utility of the Telemedicine Retinopathy of Prematurity Severity Score in a Tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Katherine M. Overbey, Kwabena Onwona-Agyeman, Sarthak V. Shah, Cindy S. Zhao, Samuel Bondzie, Imoro Z. Braimah, Arthur R. Brant, Hanks Wallace, Ashna Ahya, Dave Young, Geoffrey C. Tabin, Darius M. Moshfeghi

Background and Objective:

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of childhood blindness. ROP management needs multidisciplinary coordination and clear communication of disease severity. This study aims to evaluate the usability of the Telemedicine ROP Severity Score (tROP-SS) among nonophthalmologists.

Patients and Methods:

Twenty-three neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) staff completed a questionnaire with terminology from the International Classification for ROP, Third Edition (ICROP3) or tROP-SS. Participants were assessed on ease of use, identification of progression or regression, and communication with families. Accuracy, number of clicks, and time per question were recorded.

Results:

Accuracy was higher using tROP-SS terminology vs ICROP3 (76.5% ± 29.2% vs 51.7% ± 20.1%; P = .002). Participants preferred tROP-SS across all subjective domains ( P < .001), citing improved understandability, disease assessment, and communication.

Conclusion:

The tROP-SS enhances both accuracy and usability for NICU staff. By simplifying complex classification into a single score, tROP-SS supports multidisciplinary care.

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