Announcing the launch of EyeConnect, a multidisciplinary, comprehensive educational curriculum in diabetic eye care

The Endocrine Society is pleased to announce its participation in the educational collaborative, EyeConnect.

The educational collaborative of Paradigm Medical Communications, LLC, American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP), American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA), California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP), the Endocrine Society, freeCME.com, Global Education Group, Healio CME, Komodo Health, National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) Center for Sustainable Health Care Quality and Equity (SHC), along with its community networks of Faith Health Alliance and HAIR Wellness Warriors, Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University, and RealCME/Gather-ed, announce the launch of EyeConnect, https://www.eye-connect.org/, a multimethod continuing education initiative that will address gaps and needs of the patient journey in the management of diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Despite the availability of effective treatments, preventable DR-related vision loss and blindness remain persistent problems, often due to delays in evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment, especially in underserved patient populations. DR remains the leading cause of blindness in working-age US adults. Because the contributing factors are multidisciplinary, improving outcomes requires the concerted and proactive efforts of the wide range of clinicians who are essential to the ongoing, lifelong care of patients who either have or are at risk for DR, ranging from those who initially assess and diagnose DR, to those who treat DR.

Therefore, this initiative will address the unique educational needs of each key clinician audience (endocrinologists, family physicians, internists, nurse practitioners, ophthalmologists, optometrists, physician assistants, residents/fellows, and retina specialists), while also providing access to patient education resources, to catalyze earlier patient referral and intervention for DR, with the goal of initiating treatment before vision-threatening complications develop. This goal reflects a patient-centered, evidence-based shift from reactive (watch and wait) DR care to proactive DR care.

"Collaborative educational initiatives are critical to the development and implementation of educational activities that will help clinicians expand and enhance their understanding of the management of DR. The partners of the EyeConnect education collaborative recognize the value and importance of collaborative education to incorporate a synergistic instructional design that combines clinical, communication, and educational skills to support the medical community and patients with DR," says Scott Scire, Vice President of Collaborative Partnerships at Paradigm Medical Communications, LLC.

This initiative is supported by an independent medical educational grant from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

For information about the partners, see here: https://www.eye-connect.org/about-partners/.