Improved data could reduce blindness
A centralised database could help reduce the leading cause of blindness in Australia, a leading diabetes researcher has said.
Professor Peter Scanlon, the clinical director of the UK's diabetic eye screening program, suggested the Australian government work to bring stakeholders together to help prevent diabetic retinopathy.
The disease was the leading cause of blindness among working age people in the country, he said.
Professor Scanlon suggested optometrists and ophthalmologists be made to report when they've eye tested people registered with Diabetes Australia.
About 97 per cent of diabetic Australians are registered with the organisation.
This would allow the group to focus its attention on those who hadn't been screened, allowing experts to detect diabetic retinopathy before it was too late, Professor Scanlon said.
"You're not going to get the true population coverage unless you get everybody on board," Professor Scanlon said.
"It does need government support."
He said by the time most people presented with symptoms of diabetic retinopathy, it was too late.
Professor Scanlon, along with Specsavers eye health director Peter Larsen, met with government MPs and senators on Monday to discuss a national strategy.
This included performing eye tests on parliamentarians using new technology that detected eye diseases, like diabetic retinopathy, more easily.
Professor Scanlon established the national eye testing program for diabetics in Britain in the 1990s which helped reduce the rate of diabetes-related blindness
He also helped establish a similar initiative - KeepSight - in Australia which was working to set up a more centralised system.
Professor Scanlon said Australia also didn't have a coordinated blindness register which collected uniform data on causes of blindness.
