Diabetic Retinopathy Insight Meeting

I was invited to present a lecture on the management of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) at the Lady Bay Conference Centre at the end of July. The meeting was attended by GPs in Warrnambool and surrounding districts, as well as industry representatives.

The intent of the DR Insight meeting is to accelerate awareness amongst General Practititioners about DR screening pathways in primary care settings. Welch Allyn and Mylan Pharmaceuticals, as part of the Keep-Sight program https://www.keepsight.org.au/, host multiple educational events across regional Australia. The educational events include a presentation delivered by an Ophthalmologist and an Endocrinologist (Dr Shannon McCarthy, Epworth Geelong) along with hands on experience with the RetinaVue device to increase awareness of DR screening & demonstrate the unique telehealth component of the RetinaVue camera.

Meeting Objectives
The objective of these educational meetings is to:

• Clarify GP’s role in screening & treatment of the diabetic patient
• Educate GPs on specific DR treatment options
• Establish the impact of early intervention, screening and treatment
• Encourage GPs to screen patients at the point of consultation​

I had the opportunity to see and use the RetinaVue - it is a compact device with excellent ergonomics and importantly, provides a clear image of the central retina. It is geared to easily display the image to the practitioner to enable ease of screening and can be transmitted to specialists as part of a telehealth consultation, if required. The pictures can conveniently be captured by non clinical staff using the RetinaVue and stored in the patients' electronic file to be viewed by the GP during the subsequent consultation. There is now Medicare funding for retinal imaging by GPs to facilitate the uptake of this technology. I hope that this is adopted by all general practices as a way of easily examining the fundi of all patients with diabetes.

​I would be happy to discuss any aspect in the implementation of this program.

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