“It Allows Us to Improve Every Day”: Dr. Fuente’s Use of Our Telemedicine Platform, Cybersight

While the pandemic disrupted everything, our virtual platform soon became a beacon of hope for eye health professionals everywhere keen to continue their ophthalmic education in the safest way possible. At the end of 2021, Cybersight had reached a remarkable 56,000 registered users!

Below, ophthalmologist and the first sub-specialist in the Peruvian city of Cuzco, Dr. Fuentes, reflects on his use of Cybersight and how the platform has enabled him to grow his skills, confidence and enhanced his approach to patient care both before and during the pandemic.

Dr. Fuentes practices in the state hospital in Cuzco, Peru, a small city located in the Andean highlands. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Western Hemisphere.

The mid-career professional with 10 years’ experience is native to the city but took on his studies in ophthalmology, as well as a sub-specialization in corneal and external eye diseases and refractive surgery, at the National Institute of Ophthalmology in the capital, Lima. He sees approximately 7,600 patients a year.

Dr. Fuentes was motivated to specialize because “there are many cases of keratoconus and corneal ulcers in farmers related to the altitude, and I wanted to serve the population of my city in this way.”

According to Dr. Fuentes, there are few ophthalmologists in Peru, most of whom are general ophthalmologists and even fewer sub-specialists. To add to the shortage of ophthalmologists, many public hospitals like the one he practices at have inadequate surgical equipment and instruments.

Most specialists are based in Lima, meaning only patients from outlying areas who can afford the transport, time and lodging costs are able to access their eye care services. This is what makes Dr. Fuentes’s services in Cuzco so significant—previously, people would either not see a specialist or would not return to follow-up appointments and treatments.

His presence in the Andean highlands, where there is a high prevalence of corneal and external eye diseases, makes eye healthcare accessible while also relieving pressure on doctors offering those services in Lima.

Dr. Fuente’s Cybersight journey began in 2018 thanks to glowing reviews from fellow colleagues in Latin America. He told us: “What motivated me was the opportunity to update my knowledge and skills via a free portal where one can participate in conversations with more experienced doctors of global renown. We can share difficult cases with other doctors who make suggestions for the best way to handle them. Also, the information provided by Cybersight through the resource library can be used to resolve differences amongst colleagues working on complicated cases.”

With ophthalmic education delivered by some of the world’s leading eye health experts available at the touch of a button, Dr. Fuentes has taken courses, participated in webinars, made frequent use of the resource library, and utilized the Cybersight Consult Service a couple of times. At the time of writing, Dr. Fuentes had achieved 12 online course certificates and 41 webinar certificates.

The seasoned Cybersight user appreciates that there is material available in his native Spanish on the site, and has found the information to be “accessible, detailed and reliable.” He also uses the videos of surgical simulation techniques as refreshers before performing surgery himself.

While Dr. Fuentes has accessed most of the Cybersight services according to his needs, he finds the webinars the most valuable. He says: “First because we are pressed for time and a webinar takes an hour, hour-and-a-half. During the week, we must make the most of our time, and in the webinar, there is a dissertation by a more experienced doctor who shares their tips on how to corroborate a diagnosis; plus, the conversation afterwards is very helpful. On the weekends, we can take time to look up things in the library, but during the week, I set other things aside and make time to be in a webinar.”

Dr. Fuentes has found Cybersight to be very user-friendly and without hesitation refers other colleagues in Peru and elsewhere in Latin America to Cybersight. He appreciates the “anytime, anywhere” access to the platform and its up-to-date content, which was particularly instrumental while the COVID-19 pandemic restricted movement.

Through his use of Cybersight, Dr. Fuentes’s confidence in his own clinical and surgical skills and diagnostic abilities has significantly increased because the webinars, videos, and courses offered allow him to verify and follow the most appropriate course of action when it comes to the care of his patients and options for treatment.

Dr. Fuentes maintains that Cybersight has improved his overall approach to patient care, saying: “As ophthalmologists we often focus solely on the eye, forgetting about the systemic aspects. Through Cybersight, I have learned to look for other risk factors that could be undermining a patient’s sight.”

Given how Cybersight has positively impacted his own career development, he is keen to share the insights he has learned with others, creating a ripple effect in terms of eye health knowledge being passed down in a sustainable way. For example, the platform allows him to make comparisons of academic articles available at Peruvian universities with those available on Cybersight, which supplements academic material that he shares with his own students.

Dr. Fuentes also says he’s gained more clarity on when to refer his patients to other doctors with different skills or expertise. Additionally, he consults the platform to compare techniques he has used with videos in the Cybersight library, sharing: “It allows us to self-evaluate and improve each day."

This year, we are proud to celebrate 40 years of using innovations like Cybersight to fight avoidable blindness. By leveraging the platform to build the skills of eye health teams around the world, we have been able to change the way the world sees and transform lives in the process.

A huge thank you to Dr. Fuentes for dedicating his time to level up his eye health skills with Cybersight and using these new-found skills to relieve the burden of avoidable blindness and visual impairment in his community.

We are delighted that the platform has helped him excel professionally and enabled him to give his patients the best possible care!