The digital eye care programme is continuing to be rolled out across Wales, with the Welsh Government issuing an update on its current status by health board for the OpenEyes national EPR and OPERAi national electronic referral system for eye care.
All health boards have now implemented both systems either in full or in part, the government states, promoting real-time sharing of clinical information, along with consistency in national referral and triage processes.
At Aneurin Bevan, the glaucoma module of the OpenEyes EPR has been deployed in hospital ophthalmology clinics, with plans to introduce functionality to subspecialties by 4 May, and then to primary care. Ophthalmology process mapping work is due to be completed for OPERAi by 6 June, and “fully integrated” digital referral pathways are set to go live by 25 June.
The glaucoma module for OpenEyes EPR is to go live at Betsi Cadwaladr at the beginning of April, to be rolled out to other subspecialties by October 2026, and with timelines for roll-out to primary care currently being finalised. As the national pilot site for the OPERAi system, and the first to use it for live referrals, roll-out will continue with a fully integrated digital referral pathway by 1 May.
Cwm Taf Morgannwg is live with the glaucoma module and is looking to extend this out to primary care, with OPERAi ophthalmology process mapping set to complete by 6 June and digital referral pathways to go live by the end of June. Cardiff and Vale has fully rolled out OpenEyes across all ophthalmic subspecialties and primary care services, with ophthalmology process mapping for OPERAi to complete by 4 May and referral pathways to follow by 25 May.
The OpenEyes system is live across all hospital eye care departments at Swansea Bay, with primary care to follow by 25 May, which is also the deadline given for going live with OPERAi fully integrated referral pathways. OpenEyes is also live in two hospital sub-specialty areas at Hywel Dda, to be rolled out more widely by August 2026, and with primary care timelines in development. Hywel Dda is also hoping to have integrated referral pathways operational by 25 May for OPERAi.
Finally, Powys Teaching is undertaking preparatory work to enable the OpenEyes system’s deployment into four subspecialties in one hospital care site, with roll-out to begin in April 2026, and primary care rollout to complete by March 2027. Progress is also being made on OPERAi, with ophthalmology process mapping to complete by 6 June and digital referral pathways to go live by 25 June.
“By the end of this month, thanks to the hard work of health boards, we will have achieved the digital foundations to modernise eye care services,” Jeremy Miles, cabinet secretary for health and social care states.
Wider trend: Digital eye care
Teams from Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology have developed an AI tool capable of predicting patients at risk of developing retinopathy, following use of a common autoimmune medication, said to be widely prescribed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other autoimmune conditions. Trained using more than 8,000 eye scans from 409 patients in the US and UK, the HCQuery algorithm works by analysing retinal images captured using optical coherence tomography, a standard part of screening for hydroxychloroquine patients. It correctly identified 100 percent of patients with retinopathy up to 2.74 years earlier than doctors, according to Moorfields, also achieving 91 percent accuracy in ruling out patients without the condition.
HTN recently caught up with Mahi Muqit, senior vitreoretinal consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the Institute of Ophthalmology at UCL, to learn more about the European clinical trial of a new bionic eye implant involving 38 patients at 17 sites across five countries. The study tested the PRIMA device in patients with dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), who had lost complete sight. Following activation, participants, some of whom reportedly could not see the vision chart at all prior to surgery, were able to read five lines on average.
Moorfields spin-out Cascader has announced its partnership with Specsavers focused on harnessing the potential of AI innovation to improve patient care in optometry. Cascader, a spin-out from Moorfields, UCL and Topcon Health, is focused on building clinical-grade AI for ophthalmology. A mission statement from its website outlines its work to use AI “to enable safe, evidence-based decisions in high-volume, high-risk eye conditions” and to use oculomics for early detection of systemic disease.
