Digital imaging at centralized locations transmitted via the
internet to technicians, who look for evidence of retinopathy.
The Internet is not a medical device, but Inoveon,
a private company, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center are using it to
change the way diabetes is treated.
In separate efforts, Inoveon and Vanderbilt are
expanding their operations that make use of the Internet to transmit digital
photographs of patients' eyes to centralized evaluation centers, where
technicians look for evidence of disease. Complications from diabetes are a
leading cause of blindness among the 16 million Americans who have the disease.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, signed a contract with the
federal Department of Veterans Affairs on Wednesday to provide services to at
least 5,800 diabetic patients at the VA hospitals in Nashville and
Murfreesboro.
Vanderbilt will place specialized cameras at both
VA hospitals. Photographs from those five locations will travel via Internet to
Vanderbilt's evaluation center. Similar images arrive at Inoveon's Burton Hills
offices from clinics in Oklahoma, Missouri and Louisiana.
Four staff members were busy one day this week
examining images on computer screens for microscopic signs of disease. Each wore
special eyeglasses that gave the images a three-dimensional appearance.
Inoveon's technology allows patients to have
their eyes scanned quickly at one of the company's service centers instead of
having to make an appointment with a specialist.
The digital records should allow primary-care
physicians to monitor their patients more effectively.
The health-care system needed a fast and accurate
test for eye damage that results from the high blood-sugar levels causing
diabetes, Leonard-Martin said.
''Anyone who has worked with this disease feels compelled to
prevent the blindness that occurs,'' he said, ''because it is preventable.''
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com.
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