The Philippines may soon have its own first inclusive telemedicine screening program for diabetic retinopathy.
The Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) announced the planned establishment of the telemedicine program which seeks to address visual loss and blindness among people with diabetes.
The DOST-PCHRD said the team behind the UK-Philippines Remote Retinal Evaluation Collaboration in Health: Diabetic Retinopathy or REACH-DR that is headed by project leader and Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology Dr. Paolo Antonio Silva sought to establish the program after the successful implementation of a validated AI algorithm in the clinical setting for ophthalmology in the country on Sept. 21.
“Building on AI (Artificial Intelligence) technologies, the REACH-DR project aims to establish the very first inclusive telemedicine screening program for diabetic retinopathy in the country,” it said in a statement.
REACH-DR is under the Newton Agham Program of the DOST-PCHRD and the United Kingdom Medical Research Council (UK-MRC),
"Diabetic retinopathy is the most common complication of diabetes. Despite the availability of highly effective treatment, diabetic retinopathy remains the most common cause of visual loss and blindness among people with diabetes. This emphasizes the need for retinal evaluation,” Silva said.
“While screening for the disease early on is especially relevant, in-person retinal evaluation in the Philippines is not always possible, due to lack of access to medical facilities that is worsened by geographic, social and cultural constraints.”
The PCHRD said Silva’s team aims to implement a national diabetic retinopathy screening program (DRSP) in the country by completing three phases: developing the necessary infrastructure by analyzing and validating existing telemedicine technology, adapting the selected technologies into the Philippine setting, and completing the technology transfer to the Philippine stakeholders.
“The UK REACH DR program will help to identify eyes at high risk for losing sight, and this will have a direct benefit for individuals,” Silva said.
“An additional benefit will be the promotion of awareness for the need for eye evaluations which will significantly improve the overall level of eye care and reduce the risk of diabetes-related visual loss among people with diabetes,” he added.
On Sept. 21, the REACH-DR team with the use of AI successfully performed and completed diabetic retinopathy screening in a target community in Nueva Ecija to identify diabetic retinopathy and other vision-threatening retinal diseases.
“This development is a step closer to increasing access to retinal screening, which will pave the way for timely and accurate diabetic retinopathy detection,” the DOST-PCHRD said.
The Council said the project will run until June 2022, with the completion of the screening of the target population.
The initiative is expected “to provide the framework for the future implementation of diabetic retinopathy screening programs in the Philippines," it said