The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Eye hospital expands diabetic retinopathy telescreening

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 14, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Eye hospital expands diabetic retinopathy telescreening

M. Dinesh Varma

Sankara Nethralaya to launch initiative in six Karnataka districts The Rs. 3.25-crore project will use ISRO satellite connectivity to link a tele-ophthalmology van with Sankara Nethralaya's tele-ophthalmology hub here.

CHENNAI: Sankara Nethralaya is launching a telescreening initiative for diabetic retinopathy across six districts in Karnataka to provide rural patients access to its ophthalmic expertise.

The Sankara Nethralaya Diabetic Retinopathy Telescreening Programme will conduct multi-site screening and facilitate tele-consultation with experts in Chennai.

The Rs. 3.25-crore project, supported by the Denmark-based World Diabetes Foundation, will use ISRO's satellite connectivity to facilitate a tele-ophthalmology van to stay connected with Sankara Nethralaya's tele-ophthalmology hub on College Road here.

The facilities attached to the van include slit lamp, fundus camera and scanners for real-time transfer of retinal images to the base hospital here from patients in Bangalore, Kolar, Mandya, Mysore, Tumkur and Chamaraj Nagar. The van will be commissioned in October to kick-start the five-year project.

The World Diabetes Foundation is providing Rs. 1.5 crores while the rest of the amount will be raised by the Medical Research Foundation and Vision Research Foundation at Sankara Nethralaya.

"With the two cameras attached to the van we expect to cater to around 200 patients at a typical tele-consultation camp," said Rajiv Raman, specialising in diabetic retinopathy at Sankara Nethralaya.

A 17-member team, including four doctors and three optometrists, is being trained and will be stationed in Bangalore. The Sankara Nethralaya is also strengthening the satellite unit it established in Bangalore where patients will be provided treatment for diabetic retinopathy.

Pilot scheme

The hospital had run a pilot tele-ophthalmology scheme in 2001 and followed it up with a project for qualitative analysis of data transfer through a fibre optic link-up with a sub-centre. One of the aspects of the study, which established the viability of virtual consultation, was the evaluation of patient satisfaction levels from direct consultation and telescreening, with responses indicating between 85 to 90 per cent satisfaction levels for both forms of interaction. In 2003, a tele-ophthalmology van was launched to cater to rural patients in Tamil Nadu.

The strategy to be adopted by social workers in Bangalore and other districts will be modelled on the on-going Diabetic Retinopathy Project centred in six districts in Tamil Nadu, including Chennai.

In the past two years of screening over 30,000 diabetics under the project, whose core components include patient education, volunteers have been contacting general physicians and offering an appointment for the practitioner's diabetic patients for an upcoming Sankara Nethralaya camp, networking with chemists to get to those taking medicines for diabetes or even adopting house-to-house enumeration in truly remote areas.

Tele-ophthalmology is one of the focus areas set out by Sankara Nethralaya founder S.S. Badrinath to expand outreach programmes.

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