DHIC’s FOXTROT Used for Optometric & Ophthalmologic Training at USUHS
June 30, 2021 | Download PDF
The FOXTROT platform (provider portal and accompanying mobile application) was incorporated into a training session during the Ocular Trauma Course at The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, MD this past May.
The audience consisted of 20 senior military ophthalmologists and optometrists from throughout the country. In conjunction with Dr. Kevin Jackson OD MPH CDR (Ret.), MSC USN, Chief of Staff at USUHS, TATRC’s Digital Health Innovation Center (DHIC) Division developed a brand new instance of FOXTROT on the Mobile Health Care Environment – Research (MHCE-R) development system to facilitate this training. Users were granted secure access to the web portal and selected users were also granted access to the accompanying application to send and receive synthetic consult case requests for this training activity. The MHCE-R development system contains no live research data and it lends itself to this instance nicely.
The FOXTROT platform provides a secure HIPAA-compliant tool that connects the providers at the point of injury, regardless of their location, to an assigned ophthalmologic specialist at a higher level of care. Providers can be assigned depending on the on-call schedule for each location or facility. FOXTROT leverages TATRC’s MHCE-R and its accompanying mobile app, mCare, as a solution to treat ocular trauma. As has been previously reported in prior editions of the TATRC Times, FOXTROT was successfully deployed to Afghanistan in 2019, and in August 2020, those findings were published in JAMA Ophthalmology.
Since October of 2020, FOXTROT is further transforming virtual consults for two additional ophthalmology specialists at Joint Base Andrews Emergent Care Center (ECC), replacing traditionally employed consult mechanisms. On average, these ophthalmology specialists currently receive 3-5 consults per week, with a maximum of three consults received in a given day. FOXTROT is also expected to expand to Portsmouth Naval Hospital and its outlying optometry clinics, as well as to Brooke Army Medical Center to augment their ophthalmology specialist’s consult response capabilities.
Ms. Mabel Cooper, a project manager with DHIC stated, “What I am most proud of is the flexibility of the FOXTROT portal and application. This technology has proven useful and usable in OCONUS settings in Afghanistan and CONUS at the Andrews ECC. We are continuously working with our TATRC partners to enhance and refine the existing FOXTROT capabilities and are looking towards incorporating secure video consultation over the .mil environment. Stay tuned for more on that throughout the upcoming year.”
For more information on this project, please contact Ms. Jeanette Little, jeanette.r.little.civ@mail.mil.
This article was published in the January 2022 issue of the TATRC Times.