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OPHTHALMOLOGY BUSINESS
August 2018
digital.ophthalmologybusiness.org
The public will have access to
the VEHSS through a website and
data portal. This will allow any-
one to analyze and assess publicly
available summary data from every
VEHSS dataset without charge or use
restrictions, Dr. Rein and Mr. Wit-
tenborn said. They said the website
will have a "truly vast amount of
prevalence information" and more
will be added in the next year.
"All told, we expect to include
multiple distinct data sources that
altogether will summarize eye and
vision information from more than
200 million patient-level records
per year into de-identified, publicly
available data tables for more than
100 different measures of visual
health, eye disease and service uti-
lization," Dr. Rein and Mr. Witten-
born said.
The VEHSS is being developed
with several partnerships and with
input from experts in ophthalmol-
ogy, optometry, surveillance, data
science, epidemiology, and public
health research.
"The effort and logistics in-
volved in identifying, acquiring,
storing, cleaning, analyzing, and
presenting this information to
the public through a user-friendly
website is beyond anything I've
previously been involved with in
my career," Dr. Rein said. "Now that
we have all these data assembled, we
get to have some fun and work on
applying advanced statistical meth-
ods to develop a new set of national
summary prevalence estimates. All
told, from start to finish the proj-
ect will take 4 years to complete
the goals established in the project
proposal materials. The website con-
taining the first wave of data will be
available this year with the comple-
tion of the first wave of the product
expected by October 2019." EW
References
1. Wittenborn JS, et al. Cost of vision prob-
lems: The economic burden of vision loss and
eye disorders in the United States. Chicago:
NORC at the University of Chicago; 2013.
2. Scott AW, et al. Public attitudes about
eye and vision health. JAMA Ophthalmol.
2016;134:1111–1118.
3. Rein DB, et al. Establishing a vision and
eye health surveillance system for the
nation: A status update on the Vision and Eye
Health Surveillance System. Ophthalmology.
2018;125:471–473.
Editors' note: Dr. Rein and Mr. Witten-
born have no financial interests related
to their comments.
Contact information
Rein: Rein-David@norc.org
Wittenborn: Wittenborn-John@norc.org
