By Niamh McNamara, Diabetic RetinaScreen Quality Assurance Coordinator, National Screening Service
We’ve published a new edition of the Standards for Quality Assurance in Diabetic Retinopathy Screening. It sets out the quality standards and requirements against which our Diabetic RetinaScreen (DRS) programme is measured across the screening pathway including registration, invitations to screening, screening uptake, quality of screening, test results, referrals for timely treatment, and workforce training and competency.
About Diabetic RetinaScreen
The purpose of Diabetic RetinaScreen is to prevent or reduce the risk of sight loss among people with diabetes through the early detection and treatment of retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common and serious complications of diabetes. It can cause sight loss and blindness if left undiagnosed and untreated.
We invite people aged 12 years and over who have been diagnosed with diabetes (type 1 or type 2) and who have no symptoms of diabetic retinopathy. Eye screening can detect diabetic retinopathy at an early stage when it can be easier to treat, and treatment is more successful.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance (QA) is the process of checking that standards are met and focus on continuous improvement. Each part of the screening process must be fully quality assured and monitored to ensure it adheres to the standards and gives rise to the best possible outcomes. The QA committee for diabetic retinopathy screening regularly monitors and measures its performance against these standards to make sure we are meeting our purpose.
Clinical Advisory Group
The DRS Clinical Advisory Group (CAG), which includes international experts in the delivery of diabetic retinopathy screening and treatment, set quality standards and make recommendations to the DRS Executive Management Team (EMT) on clinical aspects of the programme. Standards are kept under review and revised, as necessary, when new evidence or data becomes available.
Review process
Members of the CAG independently reviewed and assessed existing DRS standards against international standards, identified any potential gaps where a QA standard needed to be developed, and made recommendations to ensure that standards are appropriate and drive quality improvement.
During the review some QA standards were archived and replaced with new standards. Standards that were updated include those where there was significant change to clinical practice; changes to screening pathways; standards that did not have any outcome measures; and where there was publication of new evidence. Where a current QA standard was archived, but remains clinically relevant, we’ll continue collecting data to allow for future analysis, if needed.
The revised standards were recommended for approval by the CAG in June 2024 and ratified by the EMT in July 2024.
We’ll carry out a formal review of the standards in line with our QA Policy Framework within a minimum of 3 to 5 years.