Sir,
We would like to call your attention to the article titled, “Impact of expansion of telemedicine screening for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in India” recently published in Indian Journal of Ophthalmology.[1]
There has been an underestimation in the expected treatment-requiring ROP babies in several states of India in this study.[1]
The incidence of ROP from rural Karnataka's multicenter study (KIDROP) is 22.39% of survived high-risk babies for any stage ROP and 3.57% of survived high-risk babies for treatment-requiring ROP.[2] This study uses this data to calculate the incidence of treatment- requiring ROP in the ten states but has taken 3.57% of those with any stage ROP and not the survived high-risk babies requiring screening.
The result of this study shows that the total population in the ten study states is 681.5 million. The eligible babies for ROP screening annually are 467,664. The number of babies admitted to neonatal units is 188,561, of which 160,277 are likely to survive and require screening.[1] Based on the KIDROP data,[2] ROP would develop in 35,886 of these infants, and 5722 (and not 1281) babies would require the treatment annually. The fiscal quantum of “blind person-years” saved in these ten states will be far higher than USD 108.4 million annually, reported in this study.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
References
- 1.Vinekar A, Mangalesh S, Jayadev C, Gilbert C, Dogra M, Shetty B, et al. Impact of expansion of telemedicine screening for retinopathy of prematurity in India. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2017;65:390–5. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_211_17. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Vinekar A, Jayadev C, Mangalesh S, Shetty B, Vidyasagar D. Role of telemedicine in retinopathy of prematurity screening in rural outreach centers in India-A report of 20,214 imaging sessions in the KIDROP program. Semin Fetal Neonatal Med. 2015;20:335–45. doi: 10.1016/j.siny.2015.05.002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]