Eye-Care Delivery for People With Diabetes: An unmet need

Diabetic retinopathy is a leading cause of blindness in the U. S. (1). However, this need not be the case. A recently completed clinical trial sponsored by the National Eye Institute, the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study, demonstrated that early detection and treatment of proliferative retinopathy and clinically significant macular edema with laser photocoagulation could prevent vision loss (2,3). Ferris (4) estimated that timely treatment of proliferative retinopathy with panretinal photocoagulation should reduce serious vision loss by 95%. However, data from a number of studies suggest that a significant number of Americans with diabetes may not be receiving recommended eye examinations for the detection of retinopathy (5–7). Delivery of such care has been shown to prev nt vision loss and be cost-effective (8,9).