Teleretinography into diabetes integrated care: an Italian experience

Abstract

Introduction: Integrated care, by allowing information exchange among health professionals, improves outcomes and favours a reduction in hospital admission in diabetes. Retinal complications can be sight-threatening, and diabetic patients often miss the suggested yearly clinical examination.

Methods: Teleretinography can be easily performed in patients attending Diabetes Clinics: images are sent to a remote ophthalmologist, grading and instructions are received and forwarded to General Practitioners by a dedicated software.

Results: We here report the results of teleretinography performed in our Diabetes Clinic in 362 patients missing the yearly fundus examination: 253 patients showed no diabetic retinopathy, 86 a mild form, and 23 needed referral to hospital settings.

Conclusions: Teleretinography is a user-friendly, time-saving and cost-effective technique, easily integrable into integrated care, allowing a better adherence to guidelines.