Abstract
Purpose :
Patients with diabetes are found to have high numbers of comorbidities and subsequently more appointments to attend per year. The purpose of this study is to determine if the increase in number of appointments translates to higher cancellation and no show rates among patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) in comparison to patients with exudative macular degeneration (wet AMD) in the United States (US) and Europe (EU).
Methods :
A survey was sent to 1,726 retina specialists in the US and EU inquiring the number of appointments their patients with DME and wet AMD attended, cancelled, and no showed to in 2014 and 2015. The electronic health record (EHR) data obtained from these questions were submitted anonymously.
Results :
Data was obtained on 49,730 wet AMD appointments in the US and 20,820 wet AMD appointments in the EU. Cancellations comprised 13.55% of US and 14.47% of EU wet AMD appointments. No shows comprised 3.27% of US and 1.83% of EU wet AMD appointments. Data was obtained on 37,401 DME appointments in the US and 1,648 DME appointments in the EU. Cancellations comprised 14.32% of US and 15.19% of EU DME appointments. No shows comprised 10.01% of US and 12.01% of EU DME appointments. The odds of a DME patient cancelling their appointment was 1.066 times higher than the odds for a wet AMD patent in the US (p<.01), but was not statistically higher in the EU. The odds of a DME patient no showing to their appointment was 3.296 times higher in the US and 7.329 times higher in the EU than for a wet AMD patient (p<.0001).
Conclusions :
Patients with DME cancelled and no showed to their appointments more often than patients with wet AMD in the US and EU. When comparing data between the two countries, DME patients in the EU cancelled and no showed to their appointments significantly more often than in the US. These results have profound implications when establishing treatment plans for DME patients.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.