Diagnos (ADK.V) Announces Pilot with Opticalia in Spain

Diagnos (ADK.V), a leader in early detection announced today that it has signed a pilot in Spain with three franchisees from Opticalia Group.

“The campaign begins with the request for a previous appointment through the web or at the optician itself, where patients will register in order of arrival and a free retinography will be carried out. With the results we obtain, a pre-diagnosis of their fundus will be made with respect to diabetic retinopathy,” said Mr. Santos Díaz, head of optometrists and owner of the Opticalia franchise in Aspe and Novelda, Spain.

Since I was a kid, I never really took diabetes seriously, gorging myself on candy whenever I could. It wasn’t until I could hardly stand up without passing out that I began to think I may have pushed my luck. Thankfully, I was classified as pre-diabetic, narrowly avoiding diabetes’ sweet embrace. However, diabetes is one of the leading causes of mortality and major morbidities, including cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, amputations and blindness.

With this in mind, diabetes has become an increasing concern in Spain due to rising incidence and prevalence rates. According to a study published by the Globalization and Health journal, the prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes was roughly 7.8% in 2013, with an additional 6% of the population estimated to be undiagnosed, resulting in an overall prevalence rate of approximately 13.8%.

“One of the tools used in this diagnostic process is based on artificial intelligence, a resource that comes from DIAGNOS…This allows the precision of diabetic retinopathy pre-diagnoses to be very high, reaching a Sensitivity of 98.4%, Specificity of 97.6% and a Certainty of 97.9%. Data that improves human diagnoses under the same conditions, without applying drops to dilate the pupil and in 4 seconds, which is known as non-mydriatic retinography,” said Mr. Andre Larente, President of DIAGNOS.

Diagnos’ proposed pilot with Opticalia will combine optometrist knowledge, telemedicine and artificial intelligence to obtain fast results, without invasive methodology while generating completely reliable results. Additionally, smart retinography, a tool capable of automatically searching for the retina in the eye, will be used throughout the program. All the techniques utilized in this pilot are non-invasive, painless and efficient with the intention of promoting comfort for patients, according to Mrs. Elsa Tortosa, owner and head of optometrists of the Opticalia franchise in Pinosa, Spain.

Mrs. Yolanda Moreno, the Councilor for Health in the Aspe City Council, stresses that this initiative will produce important data concerning eye health for all Aspenses. With this in mind, Opticalia Aspe intends to invest 6,000 euros in this campaign to detect and stop preventable blindness.