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

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.