Teleretinal screening for diabetic retinopathy beneficial
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CHICAGO — Teleretinal screening for diabetic retinopathy has several benefits, including increased capacity and better compliance, according to a speaker at the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting.
Christina Y. Weng, MD, MBA, said vision loss from diabetic retinopathy is preventable if caught early, but only a bit more than half of patients with diabetes are compliant with screening recommendations. Additionally, compliance is lower among ethnic minorities.
“That’s really devastating because those are the populations that are particularly vulnerable for presenting with more advanced disease and actually might genetically be more susceptible to this disease,” Weng said.
Weng said there are a few reasons why compliance is low, but top of the list is limited access to health care, which will only get worse in the coming years. While the number of patients with diabetes is likely to grow by 20% per year, the number of ophthalmologists is increasing by just 2% per year.
Weng and colleagues conducted a search of the literature to see how accurate teleretinal screenings have been over the years and to determine if they improved compliance. They looked at published data from 2006 to 2023 and identified 24 studies to include in the analysis.
They found that teleretinal screening demonstrated acceptable sensitivity and good specificity in the detection of diabetic retinopathy. Overall, teleretinal screening was able to improve compliance, and patients even preferred it over traditional screening.
While there were some limitations, Weng said the findings supported the use of teleretinal screening as a screening tool in most programs but not a replacement for traditional methods.
“Just a reminder to everyone who gets nervous about technologies like this and it replacing ophthalmologists. It certainly is not,” Weng said. “I don’t see it that way at all. I think of it as really an adjunctive technology that will become increasingly important with the way things are trending in the world.”
Reference:
- Weng CY, et al. Ophthalmology. 2024;doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2024.02.017.
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Weng CY. The use of teleretinal screening for diabetic retinopathy. Presented at: American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting; Oct. 18-21, 2024; Chicago.
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