Primary care optometry effective for diabetic retinopathy management

Primary care optometry-based diabetic retinopathy (DR) review service is an efficient and effective alternative to traditional hospital-based virtual clinics, according to a study.

A recent study evaluated a novel primary care optometry-based DR review service against traditional hospital-based virtual DR clinics in the United Kingdom.

In the hospital-based virtual DR service, 1760 patients visited clinics for data capture, including visual acuity, fundus photography, and macular OCT scanning. These were reviewed later by a hospital clinician. In the primary care model, 954 patients were seen face-to-face at optometry practices, where specially trained optometrists conducted imaging and evaluations.

The study found that primary care optometrists and hospital consultants had substantial agreement on DR grades and DMO status, with Weighted Kappa scores of 0.61 and 0.69, respectively. Furthermore, the non-attendance rate at primary care optometry clinics was significantly lower at 5%, compared to 21% in virtual clinics.

Reference
Dorrian D, Al-Janabi A, Gallagher K. Primary care optometry-based diabetic retinopathy review clinics – a new model of care and comparison with virtual diabetic retinopathy clinics. Eye (Lond). 2024;doi: 10.1038/s41433-024-03211-0. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38951677.