KeepSight's key optometry for diabetic eye disease
Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of vision loss and avoidable blindness in working-age Australians. It is now three years since the launch of KeepSight, Australia’s diabetes eye disease screening initiative that is turning attention to diabetes-related vision loss. In Part 2 of National Diabetes Week (10-16 July), Outlook check with some of the program’s key stakeholders. Black Taryn, Diabetes Australia – national program and policy director The daily burden of living with diabetes can be significant. It is estimated that people with diabetes face up to 180 diabetes-related decisions every day – that’s more than 65,000 extra decisions a year. Combined with busy personal and professional lives, remembering and scheduling regular eye exams can be ignored or put on a priority ‘list’. Add to that the global pandemic and significant disruption to routine health care over the past two years, and it’s no surprise that people’s regular eye exams may have fallen by the wayside