1. Assessment of diabetic teleretinal imaging program at the Portland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Grace L. Tsan, OD; Keely L. Hoban, OD; Weon Jun, OD, FAAO; Kevin J. Riedel, OD; Amy L. Pedersen, OD; John Hayes, PhD

2. Aim • Assess effectiveness of diabetic teleretinal imaging program at Portland VA Medical Center outpatient clinics. • Relevance • Early diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy (DR) is important, because treatment is 90% effective in preventing blindness.

3. Method • Retrospective chart review of 200 diabetic patients who had teleretinal imaging performed between January 1, 2010, and January 1, 2011, at Portland VA Medical Center outpatient clinics.

4. Results • Patients with DR = 20 (10%). • Teleretinal imaging studies of adequate quality for interpretation = 90%. • Patients referred by image readers to eye clinics for exams = 97.5%. • Patients actually scheduled = 80%. • Redundancy rate = 11%. • Patients who had eye exam within past 6 mo. • Duplicate recall rate = 37%. • Patients who had 2nd teleretinal imaging within 1 yr of eye exam. • Rates of timely diabetic eye exams at clinics with tele-retinal imaging programs, particularly when imaging and eye clinics were at same clinic, were higher than rates for clinics without.

5. Conclusion • Portland VA Medical Center’s teleretinal imaging program was successful in increasing DR screening rate.