Telemedicine and diabetic retinopathy: moving beyond retinal screening.

Current projections estimate that diabetes mellitus will afflict over 439 million individuals worldwide by 2030. The task of detecting and evaluating for the presence and severity of retinopathy in the populations with diabetes mellitus is enormous. Although current methods of treatment are effective in reducing the risk for vision loss, a substantial proportion of patients still do not receive appropriate eye care. The use of an ocular telemedicine-based approach has the potential to expand the reach of these highly effective treatments to virtually any location. Novel methods of image acquisition and analysis, as well as the identification of predictive biomarkers, will need to be developed to further enhance this approach of eye care delivery. In addition, such programs will allow the rapid transfer of clinically relevant discoveries and will allow a considerably larger benefit to a broader patient population.