Barriers and Potential Solutions to Glaucoma Screening in the Developing World: A Review

Purpose: Glaucoma is a leading public health concern globally and its detection and management are way more complex and challenging in the developing world. This review article discusses barriers to glaucoma screening in developing countries from the perspective of different key stakeholders and proposes solutions. Methods/Results: A literature search was carried out in the electronic catalogs of PubMed, Medline, and Cochrane database of systematic reviews to find studies that focused on barriers and enablers to glaucoma screening. The authors’ interpretations were tabulated as descriptive and qualitative data and presented concisely from the point of view of key stakeholders such as the patients and their relatives, care providers, and system/governing bodies. Key barriers to glaucoma care identified are lack of awareness, poor accessibility to ophthalmic centers, inadequately trained human resources, unsatisfactory infrastructure, and non-availability of financially viable screening programs. Educating care providers as well as the public, providing care closer to where people live, and developing cost-effective screening strategies are needed to ensure proper identification of glaucoma patients in developing countries. Conclusions: The logistics of glaucoma detection and management are complex. Hence, glaucoma detection programs should be implemented only when facilities for glaucoma management are in place. Understanding the importance of glaucoma screening and its future implications, addressing the various roadblocks, empowering and efficiently implementing the existing strategies, and incorporating novel ones using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL) will help in establishing a robust glaucoma screening program in developing countries.