Abstract
Purpose :
One difficulty in preventing visual impairment secondary to diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the lack of obvious symptoms early in the disease. Unfortunately, once patients seek care because of declining vision, treatment is less successful. The University of Virginia’s Ophthalmology Department sent Remidio Retinal Fundus cameras to many primary care sites throughout Virginia, specifically including medically underserved and rural areas. The images captured by these cameras are then sent to UVA for screening. In the past, the quality of the images has limited some of the ability for successful remote evaluation. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a significant improvement in the number of readable images after implementing an autofocus and internal fixation upgrade to the cameras.
Methods :
This study retrospectively evaluated 411 images from 40 patients. It included 124 images taken before the autofocus and internal fixation upgrade and 287 post-upgrade. Inclusion criteria were based on the availability of the retinal images from the DR screening sites of Clinch River Health Services and Health Wagon Wise in Virginia. Chi-square analysis was used to calculate the statistical difference between the number of readable images before and after upgrading the cameras. This project is ongoing as more data is currently being collected and analyzed.
Results :
There were 411 images analyzed from 40 patients with an average number per patient of 11 images. The patient’s ages ranged from 24-75 years old and 22 were male and 18 female. Before the addition of the autofocus and internal fixation, 46 out of 124 images (37%) were determined to be readable. Post-upgrade, 265 out of 287 (92%) were readable. The Chi-square analysis determined a statistical significance with p < 0.00001.
Conclusions :
Expanding diabetic retinopathy screening through the use of these Remidio Fundus cameras has been limited in the past by blurry and unreadable images. This study demonstrated the value of installing these cameras with autofocus and internal fixation as the upgrades significantly improved UVA ophthalmologists’ ability to screen for diabetic retinopathy in these rural Virginia primary care sites. Currently, more data is being collected and analyzed with hope of expanding these upgrades to other sites in Virginia.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.