Open AccessDiabetes mellitus in the Tamil Nadu State—Noncommunicable diseases nurse model in diabetic retinopathy screening
Author(s) -
Rengappa Ramakrishnan,
Syed Mohideen Abdul Khadar,
Karthik Srinivasan,
Hariesh Kumar,
Vijayakumar Valaguru
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
indian journal of ophthalmology/indian journal of ophthalmology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.542
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1998-3689
pISSN - 0301-4738
DOI - 10.4103/ijo.ijo_1987_19
Subject(s) - medicine , diabetic retinopathy , referral , tamil , family medicine , diabetes mellitus , government (linguistics) , optometry , community health , nursing , public health , endocrinology , linguistics , philosophy
Tamil Nadu is one of the states in India, where the diabetic retinopathy (DR) project was implemented in the Tirunelveli District. Aravind Eye Hospital, Tirunelveli was the mentoring institution and ophthalmology department of Tirunelveli Medical College and Hospital (TVMCH) was the implementing partner. The objective of the project was to develop a district level model for building capacity at the government health system for effective screening, diagnosis and management (primary to tertiary) of diabetic retinopathy. The DR screening, counseling, referral and follow-up tasks were included in the scope of Non- Communicable Disease (NCD) nurses at the respective Community Health Centres and Primary Health Centres using the tele-medicine platform. During the project period (December 2016 to June 2019), 8,574 people with diabetes were registered at the 18 CHCs/PHCs. 6,462 (75.4% of those registered) were screened by NCD staff. The government has agreed to scale up services in 3 more districts.