[Attention should be paid to the lifelong monitoring of diabetic retinopathy in people with diabetes].

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is one of the severe complications of diabetes, and also the most common reason of vision loss in Chinese adults over 30 years old. Regular fundus examination and continuous glucose monitoring can prevent 98% of blindness caused by DR. However, due to the irrational allocation of medical resources and the weak awareness of DR patients, only about 50% to 60% of diabetes patients have an annual DR screening. Therefore, it is necessary to build a follow-up system for early screening, prevention, treatment and lifelong monitoring of DR patients. In this review, we discuss the importance of lifelong monitoring, the hierarchical medical system and the follow-up of pediatric DR patients. Novel and multi-level screening methods are cost-saving to patients and cost-effective to healthcare systems, and also can help improve the detection and early treatment of DR.