The Australian KeepSight initiative to combat preventable diabetes-related blindness has celebrated its one-year anniversary, registering more than 54,000 diabetic patients.
One of KeepSight’s key partners, Specsavers now has 28% of its diabetic patients registered and expects this to increase. “As we continue to develop our patient management registration systems and processes, we expect this number to grow to 80% over the next 12 months, equating to roughly 2,250 registrations or patient data updates each week,” said Dr Benjamin Ashby, Specsavers ANZ’s director of optometry.
KeepSight also facilitates training programmes, with support from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmology (RANZCO), to educate optometrists on referral pathways and provides data to Diabetes Australia and the Australian health department to help mitigate diabetic eye disease.
Widely supported by leading diabetes and eye health groups, including Vision 2020 Australia, KeepSight is a public-private partnership between the Australian government, Specsavers and others, including Bayer and Novartis. The programme reminds the 1.3 million Australians living with diabetes, who are registered on the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS), to register with KeepSight so they can be reminded to have regular, Medicare-funded eye checks.
KeepSight is managed by Diabetes Australia. To find out more, visit www.keepsight.org.au
