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Clinician outlines methods to improve glaucoma screening effectiveness
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Screening for eye diseases including glaucoma, focusing on moderate stages of the disease and viewing screening as a triage method that treats those at highest risk for glaucomatous damage could be effective means of improving diagnosis rates, according to a speaker here.
Anne L. Coleman
At the European Glaucoma Society meeting, Anne L. Coleman, MD, PhD, said that at least 50% of individuals with glaucoma in studies around the world have not been diagnosed.
However, a 2011 study by Tuulonen found that there is not enough evidence to decide whether screening specifically for glaucoma in the general population is cost-effective. Coleman said other strategies are needed to find undiagnosed cases without screening just for glaucoma.
Undiagnosed glaucoma cases disproportionately include younger men who live in rural areas and have limited visits to physicians, Coleman said.
“In terms of what we can do if we do screening, we can educate these individuals to give them more information about glaucoma,” she said. “We can refer them into the health care system that might be already burdened, but it might be a way of at least giving them knowledge … or we can do nothing.”
- Disclosure: Coleman has no relevant financial disclosures.