Establishing eye screening via telemedicine in 24 areas of India
Wintergerst has already been to India several times to establish the smartphone-based tele-ophthalmology unit at the Sankara Eye Hospital in Bangalore together with the local collaboration partners.
"It is important for us to have a sustainable knowledge transfer so that the telemedical screenings can be continued in the long term," says Wintergerst.To this end, he trained ophthalmic assistants in digital retinal imaging with the smartphone and ophthalmologists in the standardized and systematic classification of DR on retinal images
In addition, Wintergerst and colleagues at the Sankara Eye Hospital, in collaboration with local computer scientists in Bangalore, developed a stand-alone app that enables an even more efficient smartphone-based telemedical DR screening.
"This can improve eye care for many people with diabetes, especially in rural areas with poor medical infrastructure" - Prof. Dr. Frank Holz
The collaboration has now come a step closer to its vision of expanding the telemedical DR screening program with the telemedical reading centre established at Sankara Eye Hospital Bangalore as the coordinating centre to as many hospitals of the Sankara Eye Foundation as possible. Towards this, the project is now being extended to a total of 24 Vision Centres of the Sankara Eye Foundation spread all over India. In addition, the scientists in Bonn and Bangalore, in collaboration with computer scientists, have developed deep learning algorithms to automatically analyze smartphone-based images for DR and plan to integrate them into their app in the future.
"This can improve eye care for many people with diabetes, especially in rural areas with poor medical infrastructure", adds Prof. Dr. Frank Holz, director of the University Eye Hospital, Bonn. “There is also the potential for this telemedicine screening concept to be transferred to other low-and middle-income countries."
Contact for scientific information:
Dr. Maximilian W. M. Wintergerst
Consultant Ophthalmologist at the University Hospital Bonn, Dept. of Ophthalmology
Tel. (+49) 228 287-15505; E-Mail: Maximilian.Wintergerst[at]ukbonn.de
Dr. Kaushik Murali
President Medical Administration Quality & Education, Sankara Eye Foundation India
Tel.: (+91) 9731052125; E-Mail: kaushik[at]sankaraeye.com