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Objective: To assess diabetes eye service use in New Zealand among people aged ≥15 years by estimating service attendance, biennial screening rate, and disparities in the use of screening and treatment services. Methods: We obtained Ministry of Health data from the National Non-Admitted Patient Collection on diabetes eye service events between 1 July 2006 and 31 December 2019 and sociodemographic and mortality data from the Virtual Diabetes Register and linked these using a unique patient identifier (encrypted National Health Index). We 1) summarized attendance at retinal screening and ophthalmology services, 2) calculated biennial and triennial screening rate, 3) summarized treatment with laser and anti-VEGF and used log-binomial regression to examine associations of all of these with age group, ethnicity, and area-level deprivation. Results: In total, 245,844 people aged ≥15 years had at least one diabetes eye service appointment attended or scheduled; half of these (n = 125,821, 51.2%) attended only retinal screening, one-sixth attended only ophthalmology (n = 35,883, 14.6%) and one-third attended both (n = 78,300, 31.8%). The biennial retinal screening rate was 62.1%, with large regional variation (73.9% in Southern District to 29.2% in West Coast). Compared with NZ Europeans, Māori were approximately twice as likely to never receive diabetes eye care or to access ophthalmology when referred from retinal screening, 9% relatively less likely to receive biennial screening and received the fewest anti-VEGF injections when treatment was commenced. Disparities in service access were also present for Pacific Peoples compared to NZ Europeans, younger and older age groups compared to those aged 50–59 years and those living in areas with higher deprivation. Conclusions: Access to diabetes eye care is suboptimal, with substantial disparity between age groups, ethnicity groups, area level deprivation quintile and across districts. Efforts to improve access to and quality of diabetes eye care services must include strengthening data collection and monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To validate the potential application of THEIA™ as clinical decision making assistant in a national screening program., Methods: A total of 900 patients were recruited from either an urban large eye hospital, or a semi-rural optometrist led screening provider, as they were attending their appointment as part of New Zealand Diabetic Eye Screening Programme. The de-identified images were independently graded by three senior specialists, and final results were aggregated using New Zealand grading scheme, which was then converted to referable/non-referable and Healthy/mild/more than mild/sight threatening categories., Results: THEIA™ managed to grade all images obtained during the study. Comparing the adjudicated images from the specialist grading team, "ground truth", with the grading by the AI platform in detecting "sight threatening" disease, at the patient level THEIA™ achieved 100% imageability, 100% [98.49-100.00%] sensitivity and [97.02-99.16%] specificity, and negative predictive value of 100%. In other words, THEIA™ did not miss any patients with "more than mild" or "sight threatening" disease. The level of agreement between the clinicians and the aggregated results was (k value: 0.9881, 0.9557, and 0.9175), and the level of agreement between THEIA™ and the aggregated labels was (k value: 0.9515)., Conclusion: This multi-centre prospective trial showed that THEIA™ did not miss referable disease when screening for diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy. It also had a very high level of granularity in reporting the disease level. As THEIA™ has been tested on a variety of cameras, operating in a range of clinics (rural/urban, ophthalmologist-led\optometrist-led), we believe that it will be a suitable addition to a public diabetic screening program., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of incidental non-diabetic ocular comorbidities detected at first screen in a large diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening programme., Design: Cross-sectional cohort study., Setting: Single large metropolitan diabetic eye screening programme in Auckland, New Zealand., Participants: Twenty-two thousand seven hundred and seventy-one participants who attended screening from September 2008 to August 2018., Results: Hypertensive retinopathy (HTR) was observed in 14.2% (3236/22 771) participants. Drusen were present in 14.0% participants under the age of 55 years, increasing to 20.5% in those 55 years and older. The prevalence of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) was 0.5% in participants aged<55 years, 2.4% in participants aged 55-75 years and 16% in participants aged>75 years. Retinal vein occlusion and retinal arterial embolus were prevalent in 0.7% and 0.02%, respectively, in participants aged<55 years, increasing to 2.2% and 0.4%, respectively, in those >75 years. Cataracts were common being present in 37.1% of participants over the age of 75 years. Only 386 individuals (1.7%) were labelled as glaucoma suspects. Geographic atrophy, epiretinal membrane, choroidal nevi and posterior capsular opacification had an increased prevalence in older individuals., Conclusions: Our data suggest that AMD, HTR and cataracts are routinely detected during DR screening. The incorporation of the detection of these ocular comorbidities during DR screening provide opportunities for patients to modify risk factors (smoking cessation and diet for AMD, blood pressure for HTR) and allow access to cataract surgery., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Purpose: To evaluate the prevalence and risk factors for the development of any and referable diabetic eye disease in a multi-ethnic New Zealand population with diabetes mellitus attending a regional retinal screening service., Methods: Retrospective observational cohort study of people living with diabetes who attended the Auckland Regional Diabetic Retinal Screening Programme 2006-2018 inclusive (n = 41,786)., Results: Any retinopathy/maculopathy was present at first screening for 48.2% [95% confidence interval (CI): 45.8%-50.6%] / 37.8% (95% CI: 35.5%- 40.1%) of people with Type 1 and 25% (95% CI: 24.6%-25.4%) / 21.9% (95% CI: 21.5%-22.3%) with Type 2 diabetes. Referable retinopathy at baseline screening was 4.4% (95% CI: 3.6%-5.3%) and 1.6% (95% CI: 1.5%-1.7%) among people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mellitus, respectively. After 4 years, cumulative incidence for referable retinopathy /referable maculopathy was 12/36 per 1000 people with Type 1 and 2.4/16 per 1000 people with Type 2 diabetes. Independent hazards for disease progression varied for the diabetes cohort types but baseline grade, duration of diabetes, and HbA1c were common to all., Conclusions: Referable diabetic eye disease at the first screening and after 4 years of follow-up is uncommon. Lengthening of the screening intervals for people with no or mild diabetic eye disease at first screening assessment could be considered., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2021 Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the Asia-Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology.)