Abstract

To report the 6-year results of the Stanford University Network for Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity (SUNDROP) initiative in the context of telemedicine screening initiatives for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).A retrospective analysis.Premature newborns requiring ROP screening at 6 neonatal intensive care units from December 1, 2005, to November 30, 2011.Infants were evaluated via remote retinal photography by an ROP specialist. A total of 608 preterm infants meeting ROP examination criteria were screened with the RetCam II/III (Clarity Medical Systems, Pleasanton, Calif.). Primary outcomes were treatment-warranted ROP (TW-ROP) and adverse anatomical events.During the 6 years, 1216 total eyes were screened during 2169 examinations, generating 26 970 retinal images, an average of 3.56 examinations and 44.28 images per patient. Twenty-two (3.6%) of the infants screened met criteria for TW-ROP. Compared with bedside binocular ophthalmoscopy, remote interpretation of RetCam II/III images had a sensitivity of 100%, specificity of 99.8%, positive predicative value of 95.5%, and negative predicative value of 100% for the detection of TW-ROP. No adverse anatomical outcomes were observed for any enrolled patient.The 6-year results for the SUNDROP telemedicine initiative were highly favourable with respect to diagnostic accuracy. Telemedicine appears to be a safe, reliable, and cost-effective complement to the efforts of ROP specialists, capable of increasing patient access to screening and focusing the resources of the current ophthalmic community on infants with potentially vision-threatening disease.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jcjo.2014.11.005

View details for PubMedID 25863848