An economic analysis of screening for diabetic retinopathy

The costs of telemedicine screening for diabetic retinopathy were examined in a trial conducted in northern Norway, involving the University Hospital of Tromso (UHT) and the primary care centre in Alta, approximately 400 km away. In Alta, specially trained nurses examined 42 diabetic patients using a digital camera to obtain images of the retina. The images were then sent by email to an eye specialist at the UHT. A cost-minimization analysis showed that at low workloads, for example 20 patients per annum, telemedicine was more expensive than conventional examination: NKr8555 versus NKr428 per patient. However, at higher workloads, telemedicine was cheaper. For example, at 200 patients per annum, telemedicine cost NKr971 and conventional examination cost NKr1440 per patient. The break-even point occurred at a patient workload of 110 per annum. Given that there are some 250 diabetic patients in Alta, telemedicine screening is the cheaper service for the public sector.