Dr. Manuj Kapur is being honored in Category 4: Using Innovative Technologies to Deliver Simple, Seamless, and Secure Services for advancing telehealth, hybrid care, and artificial intelligence to expand Veterans’ access to specialized eye care. His work is particularly focused on reducing geographic barriers for rural Veterans who need treatment for complex retina and glaucoma conditions.

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Dr. Kapur helped establish the VA’s first Synchronous Tele-Ophthalmology Clinics at the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System, enabling remote specialists to conduct virtual, face-to-face consultations while Veterans receive care at their local facility. He also travels monthly to rural Alabama to provide complex disease management and surgeries and is now helping replicate the tele-ophthalmology model at additional VA facilities. In parallel, he is leading development of Ophthalmology Deep Learning AI Software designed to rapidly screen eye images for signs of disease and help prioritize Veterans who need specialty care.

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Between April 2024 and March 2026, the tele-ophthalmology clinics served 236 Veterans while generating approximately $407,572 in VA cost savings with just 1.4 provider FTEs. Expansion to additional VA locations is underway. The developing AI screening tool aims to achieve at least 90% sensitivity and specificity, providing rapid results that can support same-day treatment or prompt follow-up. Together, these innovations are reducing travel and wait times, making better use of specialist capacity, and creating a scalable model for delivering high-quality eye care to Veterans regardless of where they live.