EnVision Summit 2026: Uveitis from the patient perspective

In her EnVision Summit 2026 talk “Optometry and Uveitis,” Julia Pulliam, OD, shared how practicing within an academic medical center—with immediate access to lab testing, imaging, and a broad network of specialists—enables more efficient, collaborative management of complex uveitis cases. In speaking alongside Lynn Hassman, MD, PhD, Pulliam also highlighted the growing role of immunosuppressive therapies like Humira in reducing flare-ups and treatment burden, and emphasizes how interdisciplinary, optometry–ophthalmology collaboration is shaping a more effective care model for patients with autoimmune-related eye disease. Pulliam sat down with Optometry Times to reiterate some of the key takeaways from her talk.

Please introduce yourself and let us know what you’re up to at EnVision Summit.

Julia Pulliam, OD: My name is Julie Pulliam. I'm an optometrist at Washington University in St Louis. I specialize in uveitis and also see primary care patients here at EnVision Summit this year for, well, for a couple reasons. So I was on the uveitis panel yesterday, and I spoke about the importance and benefits to collaborative care and uveitis with my colleague, Dr Lynn Hassman. And then today I'm here, I'm just getting some great CE from a lot of optometrists this morning about new things in the field.

It's been really fun just to catch up with some people. And it's a beautiful place, so it's been very relaxed and a lot of fun, and the quality of the education has been great.

How do you approach managing patients with uveitis differently compared with general optometric care, and what key early signs do you prioritize in your assessments?

Pulliam: One of the benefits of working in an academic medical center is I have a lot of resources to lab testing and imaging, so I can usually the same day, send my patients to get any recommended blood work. And a lot of that's due to the fact that I'm at a medical center, and it's very convenient. Sometimes, if you're in a private practice, it's not so easy to do that, and something else that makes it really nice is that I have a network of pulmonologists and rheumatologists dermatologists to comanage a lot of these patients with autoimmune diseases that also have uveitis. So it's really nice being a medical center. Very easy to communicate, very fluid, very easy to get to get lab testing as well. And I have a uveitis specialist that I speak to and work with every day.

What advice do you give patients with chronic uveitis to help them manage flare-ups and maintain long-term eye health?

Pulliam: Nowadays, we have immunosuppression and newer drugs like Humira, for example, to treat chronic eye disease. So, as everybody knows, the long time users of steroid eye drops can develop glaucoma and cataracts, and, uveitis is just like a really scary thing. It's painful, it can be hard to manage. But I think even looking to the future, I think we're going to have better treatments, and now the fact that we can use immunotherapy, and we know how to use it better to help control uveitis. I think that can put people at ease, because that can limit them having flare ups and having to come to the doctor so often. So I usually like to plant that seed with my patients, and it's nice that I work with the people that prescribe those drugs. So if we need to change medications or take up the dose, we can do that. So uveitis is really it involves a lot of a lot of healthcare providers. We all kind of work together, and I think there's a lot of new ways that are going to make treating this disease better for patients.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Pulliam: I just really appreciate the EnVision Summit team inviting optometry to this meeting, because in giving me the opportunity to speak about what I've learned and what a great model, this has been partnering in uveitis. I think optometry is kind of moving this way in a lot of academic medical centers and I think that's going to catch on because it makes sense and we can better help our patients.