Open AccessScreening for diabetic retinopathy by non‐ophthalmologists: an effective public health tool
Author(s) -
Verma Lalit,
Prakash Gunjan,
Tewari Hem K.,
Gupta Sanjeev K.,
Murthy G. V. S.,
Sharma Nisha
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1600-0420
pISSN - 1395-3907
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0420.2003.00004.x
Subject(s) - medicine , medical diagnosis , diabetic retinopathy , optometry , workload , grading (engineering) , primary care , diabetes mellitus , population , ophthalmoscopy , ophthalmology , pediatrics , family medicine , retinal , civil engineering , environmental health , pathology , computer science , engineering , endocrinology , operating system
. Purpose: To investigate and report the reliability of detection and grading of diabetic retinopathy by direct ophthalmoscopy through a dilated pupil by general physicians (non‐ophthalmologists) and optometrists who have undergone a short period of training. Methods: A total of 400 eyes of 200 diabetes patients were examined by two non‐ophthalmologists. Their observations were compared with an ophthalmologist's diagnoses for the same patients. Results: The diagnoses made by the general physician (kappa = 0.8381, SE = 0.041) and the optometrist (kappa = 0.7186, SE = 0.051) showed good rates of agreement with the ophthalmologist's diagnoses. Conclusions: The provision of appropriate screening protocols and follow‐up parameters can enable primary care physicians and support personnel to reliably screen individuals for retinopathy in diabetes. This will reduce the workload of tertiary hospitals, and provide optimal services to the huge majority of the Indian population that has limited access to eye care services.