Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of preventable blindness. The DR screening target recommended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (67%) had never been reached at MaineHealth’s Western Maine Primary Care (WMPC) in Norway, Maine. How could a rural primary care practice increase screenings for DR?

The primary care practice connected with the Northern New England Clinical and Translational Network, funded by an NIH Institutional Development Award (IDeA). The NIH IDeA program purpose is to build research capacity in states that have historically low levels of funding from NIH.

The practice received a grant to purchase one EyeNuk AI Diabetic Retinopathy camera. Thanks to this funding, the primary care center was able to study the feasibility and accessibility of using this tool in primary care practice. Further, they were able to study the impact on screening rates and follow-up at an eye care center.

The results?

• Screening rates for diabetic retinopathy increased from 54% to nearly 75%, exceeding the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid target for the first time
• Patients who had a positive screening had a high follow-up rate (74%) with an eye
  care specialist.
• At the same time, the system was able to avoid over 80% of referrals to specialists for low-risk patients.

Use of this cutting-edge technology in a primary care practice provided clinical, community, and economic benefits by providing primary care physicians with a tool to perform immediate screenings, increasing the potential to treat sooner and prevent blindness in patients with diabetes, and reducing the social and economic costs of blindness. 24 additional MaineHealth primary care practices now have access to these in-patient screenings.

Read more about “Using EyeNuk to Screen for Diabetic Retinopathy in a Rural Primary Care.”