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

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. Retrospective cohort study. 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. 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). 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.

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© 2024 The Authors.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Glenn Yiu reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/100000002National Institutes of Health. Glenn Yiu reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/100006312BrightFocus Foundation. Glenn Yiu reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/100013884Macula Society. Glenn Yiu reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/100014576University of California Office of the President. Susan Alber reports financial support was provided by 10.13039/100000002National Institutes of Health. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with AbbVie Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Adverum Biotechnologies Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Alimera Sciences Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Bausch & Lomb Americas Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Boehringer Ingelheim Corp USA that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Clearside Biomedical Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Genentech Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Gyroscope Therapeutics that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Gyroscope Therapeutics that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Intergalactic Therapeutics Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with IRIDEX Corporation that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Myrobalan that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Novartis that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Ray Therapeutics that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with REGENXBIO Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Stealth BioTherapeutics Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Théa Pharma that includes: consulting or advisory. Glenn Yiu reports a relationship with Topcon Medical Systems Inc that includes: consulting or advisory. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.