*4.1. Literature Search*

From the 445 articles identified, 14 were selected, complemented with one additional article obtained from the reference lists. The processes of identification, screening, duplicates removal and full-text assessment are shown in Figure 2.

#### *4.2. Description of the Included Articles*

Baseline characteristics of the included articles are shown in Table 5. Unlike SC clinics, VCs are not widespread. All VCs included in this review are located in the UK. A VC could be implemented in the initial assessment of a patient who had been referred from primary care, in which case these clinics served as a triaging service. These types of VCs included the glaucoma assessment clinic (GAC) [46–48] at the Singleton hospital and the Glaucoma Screening clinic (GSC) [49] as part of a broader service transformation program being established at the MEH. Gunn et al. did not focus on a specific VC but investigated the proportion, the characteristics and the acceptability of the Hospital Eye Service (HES)-units that implemented a VC for glaucoma care [50].

**Figure 2.** Study selection PRISMA flow chart on Virtual Clinics. Abbreviations: ARVO = Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology; *n* = amount.


**Table 5.** Baseline Characteristics "Virtual Clinics".

Abbreviations: UK = United Kingdom; MEH = Moorfield Eye Hospital; HES = Hospital Eye Services; SH = Singleton Hospital; GCC = Glaucoma Classifying Clinic; GSC = Glaucoma Screening Clinic; SMS = Stable Monitoring Service; GSMS = Glaucoma Screening and Stable Monitoring Service; GAC = Glaucoma Assessment Clinic; VC = virtual clinic; StC = standard care clinic; NG/OSR = new glaucoma/ocular hypertension suspect referrals; FU = follow-up, PAEP = Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion, MREH = Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, BEH = Bristol Eye Hospital, REIP = The Royal Eye Infirmary Plymouth.

> A VC could also play a role in patient follow-up. These types of VCs included the virtual triaging clinic established in Bristol, Nuneaton and Kingston, referred to as the

glaucoma classifying clinic (GCC) [51] in this paper, the virtual clinic in Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion (VC-PAEP) [52,53], the virtual clinic in Manchester Royal Eye Hospital (VC-MREH) [54] and in Bristol Eye Hospital (VC-BREH) [54], the virtual clinic in The Royal Eye Infirmary Plymouth (VC-REIP) [55] and the Stable Monitoring Service [56–58] (SMS) which was the other part of the virtual service transformation implemented at the MEH [50]. The complete virtual service at MEH was named the Glaucoma Screening and Stable Monitoring Service (GSMS) [59], implementing both the GSC [49] for initial assessment and the SMS [56–58] for patient follow-up. Nikita at al studied expanded patient eligibility criteria at MEH (VC-MEH); both new and follow-up patients were included [60].
