Publication Exclusive: Europe increasingly involved in setting up systematic screening programs for diabetes

Since the 2005 Liverpool Declaration, Europe has made significant progress toward implementation of systematic national screening programs to reduce diabetes-related visual impairment. However, barriers still remain in countries with predominantly private, insurance-based health care systems or countries that lack human and financial resources, Simon Harding, FRCS, FRCOphth, MD, chair professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at the University of Liverpool and St. Paul’s Eye Unit, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, United Kingdom, said.The Liverpool Declaration was the result of a consensus conference, gathering official national representatives of 29 European countries, invited experts and health professionals with expertise in the field of diabetes and diabetic retinopathy. It revised and updated the previous 1989 St. Vincent Declaration, setting the targets and strategies for reduction of diabetes-related visual impairment. Aims to achieve by 2010 included systematic screening programs reaching at least 80% of the population with diabetes, increased availability of trained specialists and universal access to therapy. Two meetings followed in 2008 and 2011 in Amsterdam and Gdansk to review progress and set new targets. The next meeting will be held on June 23 in Manchester.