Telemedicine may play an important role in diagnosing eye diseases and increasing access to excellent care and compliance of patient. This is the topic of the two studies being reported at 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
The first study looked at patients who had retinal examination before the telemedicine remote imaging system was installed. They also looked at diabetics who had retinal examination two years after the same device was installed.
Telemedicine is not new. In fact it has been noted as technically possible but this study revealed the true impact of telemedicine on the diabetics who ended up having diabetic retinopathy. Ophthalmology assistant professor Ingrid Zimmer-Galler, M.D. of John Hopkins School of Medicine’s Wilmer Eye Institute said that the system considerably increased the number of yearly retinal assessments.
Out of 1257 diabetics during the first year only 15% had the annual retinal exam. Two years after the device was installed, 71% of 1395 diabetics had the retinal exam. It should be noted that of the increase, 66% was done by a local ophthalmologist and only 33% was the result of the assessment by remote. This is indeed very encouraging as it means more diabetics are aware of the need for the annual retinal exam.
This increased awareness is vital because diabetic retinopathy affects about 5.3 million people in the US, among whom one-third do not know they have the disease. Since diabetics are twenty-five more times likely to become blind than their counterpart without the disease, early discovery and treatment will help avoid the loss of vision.
The second study involved the use of telemedicine and ophthalmology for premature babies. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons’ Michael Chiang, M.D. who is also assistant professor of biomedical informatics and ophthalmology reported that the birth of premature babies is rising around the world.
The doctors gathered info on 206 eyes of 67 premature babies and performed two sets of exams. One was through ophthalmoscopic exam and the other through capturing retinal images of the same babies. After four to twelve months, the two results were compared and 86% showed the results were the same.
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