Staffordshire digital eye-screening programme on target to screen 35,000
diabetics
21 August 2007 The Staffordshire Diabetic Retinopathy Screening
Service, a digital eye-screening programme is on track to exceed its target
of screening over 35,000 diabetes patients this year.
Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes that can lead to
blindness if left untreated. The Staffordshire screening programme was one
of the first in the UK to be launched in March 2006 and screened over 28,000
diabetes patients across the county during its first year of operations to
March 2007.
The Service is now averaging 4,000 patient screenings per month, making
it well on track to exceed its target of screening 36,000 patients by March
2008. And as well as reaching out to an ever-increasing number of diabetes
patients, the Service has also introduced a unique hospital choice system.
Diabetes currently affects 1.8 million people in the UK and that figure is
expected to increase to over 3m people by 2010. The Staffordshire Diabetic
Retinopathy Service is part of a national screening programme set up by the
Department of Health which requires 100% of the diabetic population to have
had access to a digital scan of their eyes by the end of 2007. The Service
is hosted and run by South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust on behalf of the
three primary care trusts in the county (South Staffordshire, North
Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent). Community screening clinics are held in
60 optometrist practices across Staffordshire, which are using OptoMize iP,
a digital imaging software and electronic patient record system developed by
Cambridge-based Digital Healthcare. The Service is responsible for the
care of around 41,000 diabetes patients who are invited to attend a
screening clinic at an optometrist practice near to their homes. An
optometrist takes a digital photograph of the back of their eyes and uses
Digital Healthcare’s software to grade (review) the digital images to
establish whether they are normal or whether the patient is suffering from
diabetic retinopathy. Urgent cases are referred for hospital treatment while
patients that require non-urgent follow-up are given a choice of attending
an ophthalmology clinic in six hospitals. Malcolm Gray, an optometrist and
Clinical Director of the Screening Service, said: “We are delighted with the
success of the Staffordshire screening programme and I would like to
acknowledge the dedicated support and commitment of all the optometrists
involved in enabling us to screen so many diabetes patients.
“Diabetes is the commonest cause of blindness in the working population and
digital imaging is recognised as the most effective way to detect diabetic
retinopathy early on when it can be treated. The new system provided by
Digital Healthcare is allowing us to reach out to the diabetic community by
facilitating easy access to screening appointments in a range of locations.
We can also use the software to compare images over time to track any
changes in eye condition.” The Staffordshire Screening Service offers
patients a choice of six hospitals for follow-up treatment, although the
screening programme is exempt from national guidelines that require patients
to have a choice of up to four hospitals for treatment.
Mr Gray commented: “We decided to implement specialist software so that we
could offer this additional element of patient choice and we are finding
that it really boosts patient engagement in the screening and treatment
process. Patients appreciate having the opportunity to select the hospital
for their treatment and when they contact us we are also able to explain the
next steps in their treatment.” Jim Lythgow, Sales & Marketing Director at
Digital Healthcare, said: “The Staffordshire Diabetic Retinopathy Service
can be regarded as a model screening programme. It was launched on time, is
running to budget and we understand that it is now one of the largest
digital screening services in the country.”
Malcolm Gray commented on future plans for the Service: “We are pleased with
what has been achieved to date and, having undertaken an audit of the
programme, we are now looking at ways to expand delivery so that even more
diabetes patients can be offered access to digital screening appointments
that could save their sight.”
“The ability to share information via telemedicine is also a key benefit of
this innovative software system. A number of our optometrists use a secure
broadband connection to submit images for secondary review by optometrists
that have received specialist clinical training. We hope to extend our
broadband connection so that all of the optometrists involved in the
Screening Service can submit images in this way.” To top
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