Community Health Mission to Partner with Joslin Diabetes Center – Harvard University

Community Health Mission to Partner with Joslin Diabetes Center – Harvard University to provide an easy, non-invasive way to quickly screen patients who are at risk of vision loss from diabetes so that they can be referred for appropriate specialty care if needed.

(SAVANNAH, GA – August, 8, 2012) Community Health Mission will be participating with Joslin Diabetes Center in a clinical research project. CHM will serve as a study site for the project.

Jennifer Sun, MD, MPH, an ophthalmologist in Joslin’s Beetham Eye Institute, has recently been awarded grants from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Genentech to study whether screening diabetes patients for central retinal swelling (diabetic macular edema (DME)) in non-eye care sites, such as the primary diabetes provider’s office, would increase patient access to retina specialist ophthalmologists for care and treatment of DME.

The goal of the study is to provide an easy, non-invasive way to quickly screen patients who are at risk of vision loss from diabetes so that they can be referred for appropriate specialty care if needed.

The screening will be performed using optical coherence tomography, a noninvasive imaging tool for retinal imaging.

To be eligible for participation in the study, patients should have either an A1C of at least 10% or have been living with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes for a minimum of 10 years. Patients who are identified as having DME during the course of the study will be referred to a local retina specialist for further evaluation and management.

For additional information, call 912-692-1451, ext. 109, to speak with Michelle Kephart, RN MSN– Disease Management and Health Prevention Program Director
The Community Health Mission offers free primary healthcare to approximately 6,000 uninsured
residents of Savannah. The Community Health Mission is located at 310 Eisenhower Drive, Building 5, Savannah, GA 31406. For more information or to volunteer, visit: www.chmsavannah.org

Joslin Diabetes Center, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the world’s largest diabetes research and clinical care organization. Joslin is dedicated to ensuring that people with diabetes live long, healthy lives and offers real hope and progress toward diabetes prevention and a cure. Joslin is an independent, nonprofit institution affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Our mission is to prevent, treat and cure diabetes.  Our vision is a world free of diabetes and its complications. For more information, visit www.joslin.org.

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