EMERALD

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Effectiveness of Multimodal imaging for the Evaluation of Retinal oedema And new vesseLs in Diabetic retinopathy (EMERALD)

  • IRAS ID

    227551

  • Contact name

    Noemi Lois

  • Contact email

    n.lois@qub.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 5 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    Diabetic macular oedema (DM0) and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) are the main complications of diabetic retinopathy and represent major causes of blindness in the UK. Currently in the NHS eye doctors (ophthalmologists) with expertise in retinal diseases assess patients during their follow-up visits. Given the high number of people with DM0 and PDR, the need for patients to be seen at short follow-up intervals, and the need for frequent treatments, the workload related to DMO/PDR is making it difficult for the NHS to cope with the demand, in particular, due to a shortage of ophthalmologists. This is only expected to get worse given the increasing prevalence of DM. The purpose of this study is to evaluate performance, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of a new surveillance pathway for patients with stable DMO/PDR using multimodal imaging and subsequent review by adequately trained staff. The results will then be compared to the standard clinical pathway.

  • REC name

    HSC REC B

  • REC reference

    17/NI/0124

  • Date of REC Opinion

    16 Aug 2017

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion