Bridging the data gap in pediatric ophthalmology
A Byers Eye Institute-led team was awarded to map eye exam data and harness it for clinical research
Gayathri Srinivasan, OD, MS, clinical associate professor of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute, has worked most of her career to find ways to proactively identify children with vision disorders that make it harder for them to learn and navigate the world.
The National Eye Institute (NEI) recognized Srinivasan and her team’s efforts April 28 when they announced that she and a team of researchers from institutes around the country were awarded a grant to build on that work through the NEI’s Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) Network Challenge.
The challenge, unveiled last year, aimed to incentivize vision researchers come up with innovative proposals to improve electronic health record data and bridge new collaborations. Srinivasan, the principal investigator on the proposal, took the opportunity to understand how common childhood vision problems are detected and to assess if there are barriers to access to treatment.
“Vision screening in a pediatrician’s office is the first eye exam most children receive,” Srinivasan said. “However, we do not have a full understanding of how often these vision screenings are performed and what happens when a child fails the screening.”
In a nutshell, the team’s three-step approach includes:
- Adding pediatric eye data and vision screening data to the OHDSI network by adding it to the existing OMOP (Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership) common data model.
- Adding pediatric eye care data and vision screening data to PEDSNet, a pediatric learning health system that is part of the OHDSI network and is comprised of 11 children’s hospitals across the country.
- Adding eye exam data from pediatric optometry clinics to the OHDSI network data.
The proposal comes as myopia, or near-sightedness, is on the rise among young people and emerging as a major public health concern. Around 42% of Americans are nearsighted, according to NIH data published in 2017, up from just 25% of the U.S. population in 1971.
The World Health Organization estimates that nearly half of the world will be myopic, or nearsighted, by 2050. Electronic health record data offers a unique opportunity to study myopia, its risk factors, and treatment patterns in large and diverse populations.
Dr. Srinivasan hopes that identifying the gaps in existing vision care practices and improving access to pediatric vision data can help mitigate the negative effects of myopia and other vision disorders in children.
“Electronic health record data is messy, and using this data for research requires standardization,” she said. “In this project, we plan to standardize pediatric vision screening and eye exam data to understand current vision screening practices. The collaborative data network set up through this project can also be used to study other childhood vision problems in the future”.
Srinivasan’s co-investigators in the awarded proposal are:
- Alan Shroeder MD, Stanford University
- Nathan Cheung OD, Duke University
- Angela Chen, OD, MS, Marshall B. Ketchum University
- Kristine Huang, OD, MPH, Marshall B Ketchum University
- Michelle Hribar, PhD, Oregon Health & Science University
- Julian Ponsetto, MD, Oregon Health & Science University
- Allison Summers, OD, MCR, Oregon Health & Science University
- Courtney Nall, MD, Oregon Health & Science University
Learn more
- Read more about the challenge.
- Dr. Srinivasan’s work at the Byers Eye Institute in the Vision Development and Oculomotor lab was highlighted in the 2023 Vision Matters annual report.
About Gayathri Srinivasan, OD, MS
Gayathri Srinivasan, OD, MS, is a clinical associate professor at the Byers Eye Institute in the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. Her clinical focus is on the management of pediatric vision disorders and concussion-related vision disorders in children and adults. Dr. Srinivasan's research interests are amblyopia, strabismus, and concussion-related vision disorders. She is the chair of the Pediatrics and Strabismus workgroup within the OHDSI network and serves as an active investigator for ongoing clinical studies in the Vision Development and Oculomotor lab headed by Dr. Tawna Roberts.
Media inquiries
Janice Turi
Web and Communications
Department of Ophthalmology | Stanford University
Byers Eye Institute at Stanford
Tel: 515.321.2671
E: jturi@stanford.edu