Cindy Cai, MD, shared insights from her presentation from ASRS 2023 on “Health disparities in lapses in diabetic retinopathy care” with Sheryl stevenson, our Group Editorial Director.

Video Transcript

Editor’s observe – This transcript has been edited for readability.

Sheryl Stevenson:

We’re joined at present by Dr Cindy Cai, who will probably be presenting at this 12 months’s ASRS assembly in Seattle. Welcome to you, Dr Cai.

Cindy Cai, MD:

Thanks, Sheryl.

Sheryl Stevenson:

We’re actually curious to listen to extra about your discuss relating to well being disparities in lapses in diabetic retinopathy care. That appears like such a well timed matter proper now. Can you inform us extra about your discuss?

Cindy Cai, MD:

Yeah, thanks a lot for that query. As you understand, Sheryl, diabetic retinopathy is the ophthalmic manifestation of diabetes. Even although we have now nice preventive methods and coverings for diabetic retinopathy, it is nonetheless the main reason behind blindness among the many working age adults within the US. That’s as a result of plenty of occasions our sufferers with diabetes aren’t returning to eye care as advisable by their supplier, [and] they’ve what we name a lapse of their diabetic retinopathy care.

So in our examine, we regarded to see whether or not there have been variations in charges and lapses in diabetic retinopathy care by completely different racial and ethnic teams. We included about 40,000 sufferers with diabetes who had come by means of the Wilmer Eye Institute for diabetic retinopathy screening or therapy, and located that general, about three-quarters of sufferers have a lapse in diabetic retinopathy care sooner or later in the course of the first 2 years of comply with up. These charges had been completely different by race and ethnic teams, whereby our non-Hispanic black sufferers and Hispanic sufferers had a a lot greater probability for having a lapse in diabetic retinopathy care as in comparison with in any other case related non-Hispanic white sufferers. This was a statistically important discovering, and clearly essential.

Of course, figuring out these well being disparities by race and ethnicity is simply step one. Ultimately, we wish to develop interventions and methods to remove the well being disparities that we’re seeing. So, we’re within the technique of taking this system that we have developed to determine lapses in diabetic retinopathy care, and deploying it in actual time in our digital well being file, in order that we will determine lapses in care as they’re taking place and supply extra assets for sufferers who may want probably the most assist. So, that is ongoing work and I encourage everybody to remain tuned.