Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Diabetic retinopathy, complication of diabetes, leads to severe vision loss and blindness.It occurs more frequently in populations experiencing systemic social and economic disadvantages. They face limited access to have eyes checked for signs of retinopathy by walking into optometrist/ophthalmologist office. Tele-retina, cost-effective alternative, provides eye care at distance. It is accessible to patients with limited access to conventional eye care, regardless of geography or insurance status. Yet, retinopathy screening rates in these populations remain suboptimal. Contextually adapted interventions result in improved patients' engagement in screening, treatment, and outcomes. Despite awareness about importance of implementing contextually and culturally competent care approaches in diverse Canadian environment, clinicians struggle with integrating clients' social perspective within application of evidence-based practices. We propose 2-Step process to integrate socially responsible, contextually, and culturally tailored eye care into existing Tele-retina screening program. In the first step participants (Patient Partners, Clinicians, Policy makers; N=35-50) will select social constructs (age, gender, income etc.) to dictate "social value" adaptation of Tele-retina screening program. In second step selected social constructs will be integrated into existing Tele-retina screening (cost-effectiveness) model (decision making pathway) that will guide us in tailoring screening approach to vulnerable populations. Findings of the study will address knowledge gap and contribute to creating effective, yet contextually and culturally sensitive diabetic retinopathy screening interventions resulting in increased screening uptake, decreased incidence of vision loss and burden of blindness among at risk populations meanwhile guiding policy decisions through Ministry of Health's quality improvement strategizes for existing DR screening across Ontario's community health centres.