CHCF November 20, 2023
Family medicine physician Justin Chin, DO, wanted to understand why fewer than 10% of his patients with diabetes were undergoing annual screening for early signs of preventable vision loss caused by damaged blood vessels within the eye — a condition known as diabetic retinopathy.
In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of diabetes eye exams dropped to all-time lows at LifeLong Medical Care’s William Jenkins Health Center, a safety-net community clinic in the city of Richmond where Chin serves a predominantly monolingual Latino/x population. The low turnout wasn’t surprising then, as pandemic precautions deferred nonessential medical appointments. “But after the restrictions settled down, we never really saw the rates of diabetes eye exams increase,” Chin said.
To figure...
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