Efficacy of smartphone-based retinal photography by undergraduate students in screening and early diagnosing diabetic retinopathy.

Background: To evaluate the efficacy of retinal photography obtained by undergraduate students using a smartphone-based device in screening and early diagnosing diabetic retinopathy (DR).

Methods: We carried out an open prospective study with ninety-nine diabetic patients (194 eyes), who were submitted to an ophthalmological examination in which undergraduate students registered images of the fundus using a smartphone-based device. At the same occasion, an experienced nurse captured fundus photographs from the same patients using a gold standard tabletop camera system (Canon CR-2 Digital Non-Mydriatic Retinal Camera), with a 45º field of view.