Retinopathy of prematurity is a sight threatening condition in premature infants, which has a disease course of 1 to 4 months post birth. It is a treatable condition when detected early. With improvement in survival rates of premature infants, this has become an significant issue. Medical condition of the infant, lack of skilled manpower and uneven spread of facilities are the major barriers to detection and treatment. We use a combination of technology and medical expertise to reach the infant.
Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a potentially blinding eye disorder that primarily affects premature infants weighing about 2000gms or less that are born before 36 weeks of gestation (A full-term pregnancy has a gestation of 38-42 weeks). However, screening and treatment of these infants needs highly specialized personnel and equipment. These skilled doctors are very few in number and are in large cities of the country, leaving a vast majority of children unscreened in many rural areas.
The project has been delivering ROP screening in far flung NICUs using advanced RETCAM imaging system coupled with an innovative tele medical solution for diagnosis and treatment planning since 2009. Treatment by laser photo coagulation is delivered in the NICU itself with minimal stress to the infant. We have been able to deliver more than 7800 screenings covering 2900+ infants in this phase of the project.
Complete functional vision can be saved in infants when diagnosed and treated in time. This has a life long impact on the child and on the society as blindness can cause physical and economic hardships. We expect to be able to screen at least 3500 children and save vision in nearly 300 of them with this project.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
