Open AccessImportance of telemedicine in diabetes care: Relationships between family physicians and ophthalmologists
Author(s) -
Pedro Romero-Aroca,
Ramon Sagarra-Alamo,
Alicia Ríos,
M Juana López
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
world journal of diabetes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1948-9358
DOI - 10.4239/wjd.v6.i8.1005
Subject(s) - medicine , diabetic retinopathy , telemedicine , diabetes mellitus , visual impairment , blindness , gold standard (test) , ophthalmology , pediatrics , intensive care medicine , optometry , health care , endocrinology , psychiatry , economics , economic growth
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the worldwide leading cause of legal blindness. In 2010, 1.9% of diabetes mellitus (DM) patients were legally blind and 10.2% had visual impairment. The control of DM parameters (glycemia, arterial tension and lipids) is the gold standard for preventing DR complications, although, unfortunately, DR still appeared in a 25% to 35% of patients. The stages of severe vision threading DR, include proliferative DR (6.96%) and diabetic macular edema (6.81%). This review aims to update our knowledge on DR screening using telemedicine, the different techniques, the problems, and the inclusion of different professionals such as family physicians in care programs.