Teleophthalmology provides earlier eye care access for patients with newly-diagnosed diabetes

Monica K Lieng; Parisa Emami-Naeini; Sophie C Lee; Susan Alber; Glenn Yiu

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25845

Teleophthalmology provides earlier eye care access for patients with newly-diagnosed diabetes

Heliyon. 2024 Feb 10;10(4):e25845. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25845. eCollection 2024 Feb 29.

Authors

Monica K Lieng^{1

2}, Parisa Emami-Naeini¹, Sophie C Lee¹, Susan Alber³, Glenn Yiu¹

Affiliations

¹ Tschannen Eye Institute, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA.
² Division of Ophthalmology, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
³ Department of Public Health Sciences / Biostatistics, Clinical and Translational Science Center, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA.

Abstract

Purpose: Timely diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy is important in preventing vision loss. This study aims to determine if remote retinal imaging enables earlier eye care access among newly-diagnosed diabetic patients.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Methods: Using the OptumLabs® Data Warehouse - a longitudinal, real-world dataset containing deidentified administrative claims and electronic health record (EHR) data, we included 968 846 adults with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and at least 1 year of continuous enrollment. We compared time from initial diabetes diagnosis to first eye exam by remote screening or in-person eye exam.

Results: We found that at year 1 after diagnosis, 5459 (0.56%) patients underwent remote imaging and 208 023 (21.5%) underwent in-person exam. The mean (95% CI) time to eye exam was 3.48 (3.38-3.58) months for remote imaging and 4.22 (4.20-4.23) months for in-person visits (p < 0.0001). Interestingly, 27.5% of remote screenings were performed on the same day of diabetes diagnosis. Excluding same-day encounters, mean time to eye exam was 4.80 (4.68-4.91) months for remote imaging and 4.85 (4.83-4.86) months for in-person eyecare (p = 0.4).

Conclusions: Thus, teleophthalmology may enable earlier eye care access among patients with newly-diagnosed diabetes, primarily with same-day screenings. Increased adoption of teleretinal screening may enable earlier detection of diabetic retinopathy and prevent vision loss.

Keywords: Diabetic retinopathy; Eye screening; Retinal screening; Telehealth; Telemedicine; Teleophthalmology.