Internet Program Launched To Prevent Blindness In Diabetic Patients
By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News NetworkMonday, July 18, 2005
A Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center team is launching a high-tech study to determine if early screening using a special camera and images transmitted over the Internet can prevent blindness in Medicaid patients with diabetes.
“Medicaid patients are rarely screened and are at risk of becoming blind,” said Ramon Velez, M.D., M. Sc., the principal investigator. Diabetes is the leading cause of preventable blindness in the United States and Velez said the study will determine if early referral to ophthalmologists will help.
The project — “I See in NC” — is being pilot-tested at Downtown Health Plaza of Baptist Hospital, where Velez is medical director, and then will be offered to two rural networks of Community Care of North Carolina. One is Central Piedmont Access II, the other is Access III of the Lower Cape Fear. About 2,000 Medicaid adults with diabetes will be asked to participate.
“The recent development of digital retinal photography has spurred a movement to employ this new technology with images transmitted by the Internet to central reading centers,” Velez said.
He said that in the pilot testing stage, the team is using a Canon retinal camera, acquired through a grant from the North Carolina Lions Foundation. A diabetic retinopathy reading center is being established at the School of Medicine in cooperation with the Department of Ophthalmology. William P. Moran, M.D., formerly head of the Section on General Internal Medicine, is co-investigator.
