Cohort profile: Design and methods for Project HERCULES (Healthcare Exemplar for Recovery from COVID 19 Using Linear Examination Systems): Multi-disciplinary implementation and evaluation of an asynchronous review clinic in NHS eye-care services

Abstract

Objectives To describe the research principles and cohort characteristics of the multi-disciplinary Project HERCULES, an innovative model of safe high-volume outpatient eye-care service for patients with stable chronic eye diseases. Results and analyses of the workstreams within Project HERCULES will be reported elsewhere. The rationale was to improve eye-care capacity in the National Health Service (NHS) in England through the creation of technician-delivered monitoring in a large retail-unit in a London shopping-centre, with remote asynchronous review of results by clinicians (named Eye-Testing and Review through Asynchronous Clinic (Eye-TRAC)). UCL’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction developed the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Stage 1 briefing requirements for optimal design specifications for this model of care from first principles research, by analysing ergonomic data from multiple iterations.