The Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Service for Wales, one of Europe's longest running retinal screening services, is rolling out a national, integrated retinal imaging system to cope with an increase in demand in the coming years.
The service, which started as a local screening programme, now covers the whole of Wales and in 2006 over 78,000 diabetes patients were offered screening.
That figure is expected to double over the next few years and was a key factor in the decision to work with Digital Healthcare to roll out its OptoMize iP imaging system across Wales.
There are an estimated 150,000 diabetes sufferers in Wales (about 6 per cent of the population) with 75 per cent of sufferers eligible to be referred for screening by their GPs.
Rosemarie Keigwin-Harris, service director, and a member of the National Screening Committee, said: 'We feel that Digital Healthcare will provide a system that meets national screening requirements, and is robust and reliable enough to cope with ever-increasing patient numbers.'