But, he said, among Medicare patients who have diabetes, more that 30 percent do not get the recommended annual eye screening examination by ophthalmologists. The rate of screening among N.C. Medicaid patients is about 14 percent.
"Primary care physicians rarely perform dilated eye examinations, and the reliability of their examination has been shown to be low," said Velez, a professor of medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and a primary care physician himself. "A recent review of diabetic patients at the Downtown Health Plaza showed that fewer than 20 percent reported having been to an ophthalmologist in the previous three years."
He said that taking retinal photographs in primary care settings is a potential alternative to early testing by ophthalmologists. He said that early trials using film or Polaroid cameras had been effective.
"The recent development of digital retinal photography has spurred a movement to employ this new technology with images transmitted by the Internet to central reading centers," Velez said.
He said that in the pilot testing stage, the team is using a Canon retinal camera, acquired through a grant from the North Carolina Lions Foundation. A diabetic retinopathy reading center is being established at the School of Medicine in cooperation with the Department of Ophthalmology. William P. Moran, M.D., formerly head of the Section on General Internal Medicine, is co-investigator.
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Contact: Karen Richardson
krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu
336-716-4453
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
4-May-2005