FP1247 : Ease of training semiskilled health workers to capture images for Diabetic Retinopathy Screening.

Dr.Natarajan S, N02460

Objective:To evaluate the effectiveness of training semiskilled health workers to capture images for Diabetic Retinopathy screening.

Methodology:Semi skilled health workers were trained for 10 days by experienced trainers to use fundus on Phone camera for capturing retinal images in nonmydriatic subjects. After initial evaluation of vision,IOP and pupil size, the images were captured by the trained health care workers in non mydriatic patients. They were graded by ophthalmologists based on EVS classification. All the images that were of grade 3 or better were considered as gradable.

Results:A total of 108 diabetic patients (216 eyes) were included.About 50% of the images were gradable.The factors like Pupil size < 3mm and Media haze also contributed to non-gradable images.

Conclusion: Portable fundus on Phone camera and trained health workers in using them can be a useful tool for large scale Diabetic Retinopathy screening via teleophthalmology.