NEW YORK—DocGo Inc. (Nasdaq: DCGO), a provider of technology-enabled mobile health services, has announced its partnership with Spect, a provider of comprehensive digital services for eye exam screenings, including diabetic retinopathy. Leveraging Spect’s innovative handheld retinal cameras, DocGo’s mobile health clinicians now have a more scalable and cost-effective way to bring diabetic retinopathy and other eye disease screening services to patients in their own homes and workplaces, according to the announcement. The partnership will support DocGo’s health plan partnership offerings, with a focus on HEDIS (Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set) Stars improvement and mobile primary care, the announcement said.

Health plans already contract with DocGo to address gaps in care with in-home medical visits scheduled by DocGo’s in-house patient engagement team, the company said. DocGo also said it plans to expand its use of Spect devices to help address this critical care gap, as well as explore other opportunities to utilize Spect’s solution as part of a comprehensive eye disease screening program.

“Annual diabetic eye exams are extremely important for people living with diabetes to ensure necessary treatment is received to protect their vision," said Dr. James Powell, CEO of DocGo’s clinical practice group. "Unfortunately, this exam is often skipped or delayed. It’s also one of the hardest HEDIS quality measures for health plans to close. By integrating Spect’s scalable and portable technology into DocGo’s technology and services, we can increase the number of eligible members screened, and help improve patient care and health plan quality ratings.

"Our focus is to maximize the results of each patient interaction we have. By integrating this technology, we can offer in-home diabetic eye exams as part of our comprehensive annual wellness visit or together with other screenings personalized for that patient,” Dr. Powell said.

Spect’s technology was selected as DocGo’s preferred solution primarily due to its ease of use, ability to integrate seamlessly into clinical workflows, minimal training curve, and availability of a remote Spect specialist to help facilitate the exam, the company said. Spect’s platform identifies diabetic retinopathy as well as numerous other eye diseases, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration.

“We’re thrilled to partner with DocGo to provide dilated eye exams for diabetic retinopathy in the home. With Spect, patients have the added convenience of receiving their necessary annual eye exam where they are, to prevent unnecessary blindness caused by diabetic retinopathy,” said Michael Leung, COO and co-founder at Spect. “In as little as three minutes, we have been able to identify diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases.”