Good response to AMD screening
The special screening for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) which optometrist Nichola Kennedy offered last week was very well taken up.
"We were chock a block for the week, and we had to extend the screening through Saturday morning to cope with the demand," she told the Diary.
The initiative brought new people to her practice, but many of her existing patients took up the offer to have their eyes checked for AMD using a special machine on loan to her operation. These latter were notified of the opportunity by mobile phone text messages and there was a very strong take-up.
"That was very successful, within a few minutes of the texts going out the phone started to hop."
Nichola was hoping that people between the ages of 30-50 would particularly take advantage of the AMD machine's availability. These would benefit most from early warning of susceptibility to the condition. "But most who came were 50 and upwards, people of an age when they were starting to look after themselves."
As to future availability of the screening service, Nichola says she'll have to look again at when the diagnosis machine is available. "It is such a specific machine, just for this condition. You have to have numbers to justify it."
Apart from the machine, other risk factors need to be assessed, including family history, diet, lifestyle and particularly whether the patient smokes.
AMD is the single biggest cause of blindness in the developed world. It generally affects people from the age of 50 onwards, and currently there are 80,000 people here who have the problem in varying degrees.
