Sponsor: WelchAllyn

Change is required to eradicate diabetic retinopathy as a leading cause of severe vision loss and blindness. Teleretinal imaging in primary healthcare settings provides an option to improve early detection of diabetic retinopathy in patients living with diabetes.

• With early detection, 95% of vision loss can be prevented.¹
• Achieve 90% compliance with diabetic retinal exams in one year.²
• Improve value-based quality measures and population health management

Preventive intervention is key, as diabetic retinopathy is often asymptomatic; many patients are not even aware of their condition until it is advanced. Early detection in primary care settings helps to ensure vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy is identified early enough to prevent blindness.

Download the whitepaper “The new front line for preserving vision in diabetic patients”.

Featured Expert: Stephen G. Schwartz, MD, MBA, Associate Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

¹ National Eye Institute, Facts About Diabetic Eye Disease. https://nei.nih.gov/health/diabetic/retinopathy.

² Mansberger SL, Gleitsmann K, Gardiner S, Sheppler C, Demirel S, Wooten K, Becker TM; Comparing the Effectiveness of Telemedicine and Traditional Surveillance in Providing Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Examinations: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Telemedicine and e-Health. December 2013, 19(12): 942-948. doi:10.1089/tmj.2012.0313.

Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults¹, but up to 95% of cases can be prevented if detected and treated at an early stage². Unfortunately, if diabetic patients do not schedule and attend annual ophthalmologic appointments, the disease may go undetected, resulting in permanent vision loss or blindness.

Historically, handheld fundus cameras have not been widely adopted for diabetic retinal exams in primary care settings due to poor image quality and difficulty to operate—but advances in fundus imaging technology is changing that.

This study outlines:

• The new RetinaVue 100 Imager can be effectively used in non-eye care settings.
• How retinal images can be captured by minimally experienced operators in just four minutes.
• That a high percentage of these images can be successfully interpreted by an ophthalmologist.

¹ CDC Vision Health Initiative (VHI), Common Eye Disorders. www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basics/ced/index.html.

² National Eye Institute, Facts about Diabetic Eye Disease. http://nei.nih.gov/health/diabetic /retinopathy

Change is required to eradicate diabetic retinopathy as a leading cause of severe vision loss and blindness. Teleretinal imaging in primary healthcare settings provides an option to improve early detection of diabetic retinopathy in patients living with diabetes.

• With early detection, 95% of vision loss can be prevented.¹
• Achieve 90% compliance with diabetic retinal exams in one year.²
• Improve value-based quality measures and population health management

Preventive intervention is key, as diabetic retinopathy is often asymptomatic; many patients are not even aware of their condition until it is advanced. Early detection in primary care settings helps to ensure vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy is identified early enough to prevent blindness.

Download the whitepaper “The new front line for preserving vision in diabetic patients”.

Featured Expert: Stephen G. Schwartz, MD, MBA, Associate Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

¹ National Eye Institute, Facts About Diabetic Eye Disease. https://nei.nih.gov/health/diabetic/retinopathy.

² Mansberger SL, Gleitsmann K, Gardiner S, Sheppler C, Demirel S, Wooten K, Becker TM; Comparing the Effectiveness of Telemedicine and Traditional Surveillance in Providing Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Examinations: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Telemedicine and e-Health. December 2013, 19(12): 942-948. doi:10.1089/tmj.2012.0313.

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most preventable blinding diseases in the world.¹Unfortunately, due to the lack of warning signs and symptoms, it is often not detected until the late stages of the disease—when vision loss can be irreversible.

Early detection of diabetic retinopathy is critical for patients living with diabetes, so they are typically referred to the ophthalmologist for an annual eye exam—but about half either fail to schedule or fail to attend their appointment.²

Download the case study to learn how Summit Medical Group implemented a patient-centered solution to ensure compliance with the annual diabetic eye exam, enabling ophthalmologists to diagnose disease in early stages when vision-saving treatment options are still available.

¹CDC Vision Health Initiative (VHI), Common Eye Disorders. www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basics/ced/index.html

²Monitoring Visual Status: Why Patients Do or Do Not Comply with Practice Guidelines: Frank A. Sloan, Derek S. Brown, Emily Streyer Carlisle, Gabriel A. Picone, and Paul P. Lee, HSR: Health Services Research 39:5 (October 2004)

Diabetes is an epidemic. There are 44 million (12.9%) people living with diabetes in North America today, and by 2040 there will be 60 million (14.7%).¹ Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults. A paradigm shift is necessary to realize a significant decrease in the number of people suffering from severe vision loss and blindness because of undiagnosed diabetic retinopathy.

Welch Allyn is leading the way with a simple and affordable turnkey solution enabling diabetic retinal exams in primary care settings. Making diabetic retinal exams more accessible means more patients who are not receiving annual exams can be conveniently examined for diabetic retinopathy.

Download the whitepaper for more information on:

• A new, patient-centered approach to diabetic retinal exams.
• The benefits of teleretinal exams in primary care settings.
• Turnkey programs with hardware, software and diagnostic services.

¹IDF Diabetes Atlas, Seventh Edition 2015, page 82. www.idf.org.