Barriers in establishing systematic diabetic retinopathy screening through telemedicine in low- and middle-income countries
| Autor: | Sobha Sivaprasad, Rajan Sondh, Sridevi Thottarath, Shruti Chandra, Daniel Yim |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Telemedicine Referral Population Review Article medicine Diabetes Mellitus Humans Mass Screening Intensive care medicine education Opportunistic screening Developing Countries Referral and Consultation education.field_of_study Blindness business.industry Diabetic retinopathy screening screening Diabetic retinopathy medicine.disease Ophthalmology diabetic retinopathy Low and middle income countries telemedicine business Barriers |
| Zdroj: | Indian Journal of Ophthalmology |
| ISSN: | 1998-3689 0301-4738 |
| Popis: | Vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy (VTDR) is one of the leading causes of impaired vision in the working-age population. Early identification, timely diagnosis, and prompt treatment of VTDR have to be tackled simultaneously to reduce the rate of blindness due to this condition. Considerable emphasis has been placed globally on establishing diabetic retinopathy screening (DRS) programs to enable early identification and referral of VTDR for treatment. However, there is an urgent need to shift from the common practice of opportunistic screening to a systematic DRS pathway to ensure that individuals with diabetes are screened at regular intervals and treated appropriately. While systematic DRS programs have been successfully established in countries such as the United Kingdom (UK), it continues to be a challenge to initiate and sustain such programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), home to approximately 80% of people with diabetes. Telemedicine is widely recognized as an ideal DRS screening program. Although it has resulted in an upsurge of opportunistic screening, systematic recall of screened patients remains a challenge. In addition, the link between referred patients from the telemedicine programs to treatment centers is often not established or has failed to deliver; so, there is minimal impact of these telemedicine programs on VTDR blindness at present. This review covers the various barriers of establishing and sustaining systematic telemedicine DRS programs, especially in resource-constrained settings, and the challenges in aligning telemedicine to VTDR treatment pathways to ensure patients with VTDR are treated promptly and effectively. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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