Diagnos (ADK.V) announced today that it has signed a two-month pilot with Hospital Oftalmologico Buena Vista Sinaloa (BVS), the largest ophthalmological hospital in Sinaloa state, Mexico.
“Our focus is to provide our specialty services to everybody within one of our seven eye health programs such as ophthalmological consultation, surgeries, culture of prevention of eye diseases, campaign of free consultation in suburban areas to people in extreme poverty, national museum of ophthalmology, among others…We’re excited to welcome Diagnos as we look forward to use a real-life tested technology based on AI, reliable and compliant with the most exigent international standards,” commented Dr. Efrain Romo Santos, founder and head of ophthalmology at Hospital Oftalmologico Buena Vista Sinaloa.
For more than 24 years, BVS has provided ophthalmic treatments for the diagnosis and prevention of eye diseases to thousands of patients coming from four out of nine regions of northern Mexico. Founded on December 6, 1996, BVS was created to treat a variety of diseases including myopia, astigmatism, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy, just to name a few. With a team of doctors and specialists in ophthalmology, BVS has attended to patients in different states such as Sinaloa, Durango, Baja California Sur and Sonora.
Diabetic retinopathy is an eye condition that can cause vision loss and blindness in people who have diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy is particularly troublesome considering early stages of the eye condition usually don’t have symptoms. With this in mind, in Mexico there are roughly 18 million diabetics with a 23% prevalence rate in people of 20 years or more. To put things into perspective, every hour eight patients die from diabetes in Mexico. Moreover, 80% of deaths in Mexico are associated with diabetes. In Sinaloa state, 355,000 cases are reported, of which almost half are undiagnosed. Furthermore, of the 180,000 that have been diagnosed, only 30% visit the doctor on a regular basis.
“This is a great moment for Diagnos as we’ve been proving that our AI and telemedicine modules helps safety issues around specialists and their staff during this challenging time. We will be demonstrating our service of retina screening to everyone that needs it…Along with Dr. Romo, we’ll provide a turnkey solution to his renowned team of specialists. We’re confident that during the pilot we’ll deliver a real-time result to the local population by supporting the specialists in their day to day. Finally, we will give hope to patients through the access to eye screening with Dr. Romo’s Institutions,” says Guillermo Moreno, vice-president of Diagnos.
As previously mentioned, diabetic retinopathy is directly related to diabetes. With 30,000 new cases of diabetes per year registered in the state of Sinaloa, diabetic retinopathy and vision loss have become two incredibly pressing issues in Mexico. Through this pilot, Diagnos will employ its AI and telemedicine modules to provide retina screening to patients in need.
Diagnos’ share price opened at $0.55 and is currently trading at $0.55 as of 9:47AM ET. This indicates that there has not been any noticeable change following the news.
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