PMID- 32298600
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20210514
LR  - 20220531
IS  - 1556-3669 (Electronic)
IS  - 1530-5627 (Linking)
VI  - 26
IP  - 11
DP  - 2020 Nov
TI  - Comparison of Digital Retinal Images and Information Tele-Transferred Through the 
      Hala System to Manual Image Transfer of Diabetic Patients from Primary Health 
      Care Centers in Riyadh.
PG  - 1400-1405
LID - 10.1089/tmj.2019.0245 [doi]
AB  - Background: Diabetes is a significant problem in Saudi Arabia, and telemedicine 
      in the form of tele-screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR) is recommended. 
      Introduction: A comparison of the quality of images and information transferred 
      through the Hala system of the Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia, with images 
      transferred in a survey at Primary Healthcare Centers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 
      was conducted. Methods: A review of health records was undertaken in 2017-2018. 
      Digital retinal images of diabetics were tele-transferred from a diabetes center 
      to the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital (KKESH) for review by medical retina 
      specialists (Group I). Similarly, images of diabetic patients that were 
      transferred from seven primary health clinics to KKESH during a survey were used 
      as images for research (Group II). Additional information reviewed for 
      completeness included patient demographics, risk factors of DR, and previous eye 
      surgery. Results: There were 40 images of 40 patients transferred through the 
      Hala system. There were 120 randomly selected images from survey files. There 
      were significantly more poor images from the Hala system (12.5%) than the 
      research survey system (2.4%). There was no significant difference in the 
      severity of DR between groups. The median Rasch score for the images was -0.58 
      (interquartile range [IQR] -5.6, 2.6) in Group I and 19.7 (IQR 18.3, 19.7) in 
      Group II. The image reader perceived that the quality of digital retinal images 
      was significantly better in images transferred from the research survey compared 
      with those transferred through the Hala DR tele-transfer system. (Mann-Whitney p 
      < 0.001). Conclusions: Digital image capture and supplementary risk factor 
      information require improvement to enhance DR screening using the Hala system.
FAU - Al-Fawaz, Khalid
AU  - Al-Fawaz K
AD  - Department of Administration, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi 
      Arabia.
FAU - Al Rubaie, Khalid
AU  - Al Rubaie K
AD  - Department of Retina, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
FAU - Zia, Yasir
AU  - Zia Y
AD  - Department of Research, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi 
      Arabia.
FAU - Khandekar, Rajiv
AU  - Khandekar R
AD  - Department of Research, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi 
      Arabia.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20200416
PL  - United States
TA  - Telemed J E Health
JT  - Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American 
      Telemedicine Association
JID - 100959949
SB  - IM
MH  - *Diabetes Mellitus
MH  - *Diabetic Retinopathy/diagnostic imaging
MH  - Humans
MH  - *Ophthalmology
MH  - Primary Health Care
MH  - Retina/diagnostic imaging
MH  - Saudi Arabia
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - diabetes
OT  - diabetic retinopathy
OT  - tele-ophthalmology
OT  - tele-transfer
OT  - telemedicine
EDAT- 2020/04/17 06:00
MHDA- 2021/05/15 06:00
CRDT- 2020/04/17 06:00
PHST- 2020/04/17 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/05/15 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2020/04/17 06:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1089/tmj.2019.0245 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Telemed J E Health. 2020 Nov;26(11):1400-1405. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2019.0245. Epub 
      2020 Apr 16.