Urban diabetic retinopathy teleophthalmology screening: results and impact at the service corridor.

CONCLUSION: The FFCEs generated at the hospital service corridor by an urban community DR screening teleophthalmology project did not impact negatively on its services; moreover, the service corridor was exempted from providing FFCEs to 87.4% of the diabetic population it serves. This study may help provide cost-efficiency indications for a screening protocol that would include OCT availability at the imaging site and measure its positive effects. While DR of which DME was the main cause of referral for FFCE, incidental significant sight-threatening findings were significant and approached DR as a cause of referral; this supports the recommendation of continued human intervention in DR teleophthalmology screening at this time and for this population, until automatic computer-aided diagnosis systems can recognise biomarkers associated with other significant fundus diseases. As a secondary gain this project benefited individuals in need of care who were lost to the traditional eye care pathway. Good compliance with the follow-up FFCE further supports teleophthalmology in its effort to provide better access to DR screening. PMID: 31109477 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology - Category: Opthalmology Authors: Tags: Can J Ophthalmol Source Type: research