Telemedicine Program Targets Infant Blindness From: Wired News - 06/20/2006 By: Michael D. O'Neill Organizers of a telemedicine program run by Stanford University hope the technology can save the vision of infants born with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), a condition that affects 80,000 babies each year and blinds about 600 of them. Evaluation by a qualified doctor is key to diagnosing the condition and treating it properly, which can prevent blindness. The number of doctors who specialize in ROP is dwindling, however, stretching thin those who can identify and treat it. With the Stanford University Network for the Diagnosis of ROP (SUNDROP), digital imaging allows doctors to examine patients remotely, thereby greatly improving their chances of keeping their sight. Using the technology, doctors can correctly diagnose about 92 percent of the cases diagnosed by doctors who perform in-person examinations. Professor Darius Moshfeghi led development of SUNDROP, which has allowed him to spend significantly less time traveling to see patients in person, leaving much more time for evaluating infants for the condition. Read the entire article at: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,71041-0.html Links: SUNDROP Helps Reduce Infant Blindness http://paxalles.blogs.com/paxalles/2006/06/sundrop_helps_r.html Diagnosing kids at risk of blindness http://www.lpch.org/newsEvents/NewsReleases/2006/moshfeghi.html Darius Moshfeghi, MD http://www.lpch.org/findADoctor/search/doc.pl?doc=18650&resultSet=18650