Digital Healthcare, a Wake Forest, NC company specializing in sight-saving retinal risk assessment, announced today that West Philadelphia Eye Associates has selected Retasure (www.retasure.com) to provide retinal imaging risk assessment and will also serve as a Retasure reading center.
West Philadelphia Eye Associates is a multi-cultural community based ophthalmic practice located in Philadelphia, PA. The practice providers are partnering with area primary care
facilities to provide Retasure assessments within the individual practices. The West Philadelphia Eye physicians will grade the assessments for these patients as well as for other
regional Retasure practices.
"West Philadelphia Eye is our first Retasure client to provide both the patient assessments and the reading," said Scott Sanner, Senior Vice President, North American Operations of
Digital Healthcare. "They are an innovative organization that understands the need to make retinal imaging risk assessments widely available for patients. I am sure they will be highly
successful offering Retasure services to the primary care patients within their community."
"Diabetics have a high risk for diabetic retinopathy and blindness and early assessment is critical for sight preservation," said Angelo Jones, the founder of West Philadelphia Eye
Associates. "Often patients fail to schedule regular eye exams but Retasure will make it easy for us to provide this very simple assessment while patients are in their primary care
doctor's office. We believe it will make a difference to total patient health in our community."
The FDA-approved and HEDIS compliant Retasure program provides a simple, affordable, and non-invasive solution that allows physicians to capture their patients' retinal images during a
three to five minute procedure without eye dilation. Images are transmitted over a secure, HIPAA compliant network to an accredited reading center. A state-licensed and board certified
ophthalmologist reviews the images and results are returned to the original physician within 72 hours. The simplicity of the assessment process is unique in the market and addresses a
previously un-met need for one of the nation's largest public health issues.
There are an estimated 21 million diabetic patients in the US, but only about half have any retinal assessments, despite a high risk of diabetic retinopathy. The National Eye Institute
indicates diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness among working age American adults. More than a million patients worldwide have received a retinal risk assessment using
Digital Healthcare software.
About Digital Healthcare
Digital Healthcare is the global leader in retinal risk assessment. They are the world's leading provider of care management programs for diabetic retinopathy. Their award-winning MS-HUG
technology is used by
leading hospitals and research centers including University Hospitals Case Medical Center at Case Western Reserve University, The Wilmer Eye Institute at The Johns Hopkins University and
the United States Military. Digital Healthcare's Retasure solution offers several advantages for primary care and endocrinologist physicians and their patients: It can be operated by
non-clinicians; it is non-invasive and requires no dilation; it obtains exceptionally high-quality digital images of the retina using a simple-to-operate fundus camera; it returns results
quickly to the ordering physicians; and it encourages patient compliance for retinal evaluation and comprehensive eye examinations. For more information, visit www.retasure.com.
About West Philadelphia Eye Associates
West Philadelphia Eye Associates provides treatment for ocular disease as well as routine eyeglass and contact lens evaluations. The West Philadelphia Eye professionals perform cataract
and glaucoma surgeries, as well as laser treatment for diabetic, hypertensive and glaucoma patients. The office is located in Mercy Philadelphia Hospital. For additional information,
please call (215) 748-0185.