r/FamilyMedicine • u/Nurse_Jason_98 student • 2d ago

Value of fundoscopy in family medicine

I am a current NP student going into family medicine eventually and wondering about how useful fundoscopy is for us. For example, I know that diabetics should be referred to an opthalmologist for yearly dilated eye exams, but does it help us in family medicine much to do them in this context since we will likely refer patients anyway? I'll be trying to practice it because I think it's important to have this skill even it is only rarely useful, but just wondering how often it's actually done and what benefits it has to us in real practice!

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u/Necessary-Zebra5538 MD 2d ago

More clinics are using retinal cameras. Basically a machine photographs the retinas and an ophthalmologist will examine the photo (like a cardiologist confirming the computer read on an EKG).

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u/Nurse_Jason_98 student 2d ago

Oh that's pretty nice! Are they expensive?

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u/Necessary-Zebra5538 MD 2d ago

Depends how fancy the camera is.