10 Oct 2022

In an effort to address current eye testing service challenges in Botswana, Alive Botswana Medical Clinic is to  embark on a telemedicine eye screening pilot project at Gaborone’s Block Six Diabetic Clinic.

In an interview,  the clinic’s managing director, Dr Mosweu Boitshepo  revealed that the pre-pilot phase had been completed and was successful.

It was now moving into the deployment phase scheduled to commence in the second half of this month and expected to be completed sometime in November, he said.

Dr Boitshepo said the project, diabetic retinopathy screening, was prompted by the fact that there were currently only five public health care facilities designated for performing retinal testing.

“Consequently, many patients end up having to travel long distances to get to those facilities, a situation which has contributed to poor compliance to the screening test by patients,” he said.

Noting that Botswana’s diabetes prevalence was 5.1 per cent of the total adult population, Dr Boitshepo said all the patients had to undergo routine retinal eye screening at least once a year or once in two years in an effort to reduce preventable blindness. 

It was high time both private and public health service providers positioned themselves to deliver cutting edge services that were current, research-based and addressed specific burning health issues, he said.

Dr Boitshepo said the project entailed  taking retinal images of patients using Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, portable-handheld fundus camera and uploading them onto a secure and encrypted telemedicine platform.

An eye specialist, located remotely, would be able to grade the uploaded retinal images virtually, ‘in real time’, he explained.

Dr Boitshepo said the specialist would be able to assess the condition of the patient’s retina and determine the extent of damage caused by factors related to the patient’s chronic illness and based on the findings; make recommendations.

He said the results would be automatically shared with the patient’s attending health care provider through an SMS.

Dr Boitshepo said the project’s main aim was to give many Batswana with chronic illnesses access to a more convenient screening service.

 The objective was to implement an innovative, efficient and convenient way of conducting retinal eye screening for patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and HIV, he said.

Dr Boitshepo said the project was sponsored by Alive Botswana Medical Clinic which provided a team of ophthalmologists, ophthalmic nurses, research specialists, optometrists and the Block Six Clinic team.

Meanwhile,  Dr Boitshepo has said Alive Botswana Medical Clinic was established in 2019 and provided mobile health services.

Popularly known as Mobile Doctors Botswana, the service allows patients to call a doctor for consultation.

It also provided home based child welfare services which proved extremely useful during the COVID-19 pandemic characterised by social distancing and movement restrictions, he said.

The clinic now offers general medical and surgical consultation, counselling and laboratory services and has a visiting dietician and ophthalmologist. Ends