There are up to 1.9 million people living with diabetes in Australia. Of those, research suggests 800,000 don’t access routine eyecare services. This was the impetus to establish diabetes eye check reminder system KeepSight in 2018. How is the initiative faring five years on?
KeepSight’s mission is to eliminate vision loss to diabetes in Australia by increasing the number of people accessing routine diabetes eyecare – connecting people with diabetes to the eye checks that they need.
Most of the people who are already part of the KeepSight program are referred by their optometrist. Specsavers is the program’s founding optometry partner, and registers around 2,000 new patients with diabetes plus 3,500 follow up appointments to the program each week. Other major providers, including Luxottica, are also integrated with the program and with recent integrations with Optomate and support from Optometry Australia, other providers are also beginning to increase their referral rates to KeepSight.
Taryn Black, Diabetes Australia.
“Diabetes is a complex condition and people living with it have a lot to manage. It is relentless. There is never a day off.”
According to Diabetes Australia (DA), this support from the sector is invaluable to the success of the program. Integration means a streamlined, efficient sign-up process for both people with diabetes and providers. It also reinforces the importance of the KeepSight message through endorsement from a health professional. But despite that, some people with diabetes are hard to engage.
DA’s KeepSight program director Ms Taryn Black says there are a multitude of reasons why people might not be engaging in regular eye checks.
“Diabetes is a complex condition and people living with it have a lot to manage. It is relentless. There is never a day off. Often people are also dealing with other, potentially more urgent complications. So, the need to have an eye check may be down the pecking order of priority,” she says.
“And as we know, diabetic retinopathy can be asymptomatic. People might think their vision is fine so there is no need to prioritise a check right now.
“On top of this, there may be other concerns that people have – the cost, accessibility to an eyecare provider, worry that having an eye check may hurt or that the check might actually find a problem – there are many potential barriers.”
DA says this is where KeepSight plays an important role. The KeepSight team routinely engages with people with diabetes encouraging them to sign up for checks but also working to allay any other barrier or concerns they may have.
This work to drive more people with diabetes into the clinic for a check is a critical piece of the KeepSight effort, Black says.
“We have a unique opportunity to be able to directly connect with people with diabetes via the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS).”
KeepSight is employing a multi-pronged approach to communicating with people with diabetes about eye health.
Increasingly DA is much more targeted in the way it communicates. It achieves this by developing messaging targeted to particular groups or cohorts.
“This might be people who are newly diagnosed, or those who have lived with diabetes for many years. It might also be people in regional and remote areas, versus those in metro areas. It might be people who have started the sign-up process previously who, for whatever reason, didn’t complete it,” Black says.
“All of these groups require a subtle nuancing in the message which speaks to their unique challenges – but it is essentially the same message – register for reminders and get your eyes checked – it’s really important.”
In the most recent activation, the team observed a six-times improvement in response, simply by adapting the message to speak more directly to the person’s individual experience and reinforcing the message with a follow up communication.
In addition to direct communications, the KeepSight team adopts what it calls an ‘always on’ approach to marketing and communication. There is always something in market encouraging people to sign up and reinforcing the diabetes eye health message. This might include social media or digital advertising, media articles, or advertising in key publications.
The goal is to build exposure so that people see the diabetes eye health message everywhere.
It is this layered approach that the KeepSight team hopes will continue to bring people into eyecare providers for a check.
“KeepSight’s mission is to direct people with diabetes into routine eye care and remind them to keep going back. That is then where the eyecare sector’s role really comes into play – to provide quality and reassuring, specialist diabetes eyecare,” Black says.
“It really is a wrap-around effort to support people with diabetes to prioritise their eyes and we are grateful for the support of providers like Specsavers who are so committed to this important cause, providing not just financial support but also industry expertise and insight.”
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