He comes to Spain the first telemedicine project in optics for the prevention of blindness.

-OPTretina is the first network of optical optometrists and retinologos for the prevention and screening of diseases of the retina

-OPTretina was created with the support of the official College of opticians optometrists and optical Optometrists in Catalonia, the College of opticians Optometrists of the Valencian Community, the Spanish Federation of diabetic patients (FEDE), the Catalan Association of diabetics, the Asturian Association of retinitis pigmentosa, the Association of visually impaired of Catalonia and official school of optometry of the Region of Murcia

Barcelona, February 2013.- currently 39 million people in the world suffer from blindness, and about some 70,000 in Spain. With this data in hand and with the aim of responding to the social need of accelerating the process of detection of eye diseases to prevent possible blindness, was born OPTretina, the first network of optical optometrists for prevention of diseases of the retina that gives society a new tool for screening of retinal diseases: telemedicine in optical.

The network, formed by a group of expert retinologos, and more than 50 optical uses, pioneer in our country, the telemedicine to diagnose possible disease of the retina through the optics. Currently a patient had to go to their primary care (CAP) or referral hospital centre where a doctor visited him and this derived a specialist to make relevant evidence. Due to the high level of saturation of the public health system, the process can take a long period of time in which many patients can be detected them too late pathologies. Obviously the retinography does not replace the visit with the specialist, but is a great tool for early detection.

“Patients should not go to the optics in search of a diagnosis, for that you have to go to the eye doctor, but if all patients entering a lens to do this study many blindness could be avoided” says Dr. Miguel Angel Zapata, Coordinator of OPTretina, Deputy of ophthalmology at the Hospital de la Vall d ’ Hebron in BarcelonaHead of the Department of Retina in the Institut Oftalmològic de Girona and Medical Director of Diagsum.

telemedicine that uses OPTretina allows to offer to the client, in a maximum of 48 hours, a diagnostic evaluation of your retina by a skilled retinologo, and a recommendation to let the patient know if you must go to the specialist of urgent, preferential or ordinary form. With the report the patient can visit directly with the specialist.

It was necessary to shorten the diagnostic process in order to prevent. It may not be end of a disease that is treatable with a disability as important as it is the blindness ”, says the shoe doctor.

In Spain, there are currently more than 3.400.000 diabetic with a growth of 5% annually, and many of them are susceptible to diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in patients under 50 years of age. Many diabetic associations are calling for the creation of protocols for the prevention of the disease, since none exists. In the case of degeneration macular age (AMD), which is the leading cause of blindness in over 50 years (there are 3 million people at risk of suffering), also there is this need.

Prevention is the most important part in detecting these diseases. You have to inform the population and, above all, risk groups. It seems incomprehensible that nowadays, with all the tools that we have, yet there are people who come to stay blind by AMD or diabetic retinopathy when, caught in time, they are treatable ”, says the shoe doctor.

OPTretina follows the line of the philosophy of the project VISION 2020: the right to sight ” a project led by the World Health Organization (who) and the International Agency for the Blindness Prevention (IABP), which aims to eradicate blindness which can prevent and educate the world about these diseases.