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This week in optometry: May 29-June 2
Catch up on what happened in optometry during the week ofMay 29-June 2.
Catch up with what Optometry Times®' shared this week:
Adobe Stock/Fernando
Optometry news
Comanagement of refractive surgeries: What are you waiting for?
Cecelia Koetting, OD, FAAO
Comanagement of patients between disciplines is important, especially for eye care providers and surgeons. Although not new, this concept is one whose importance we continuously discuss as the scope of practice continues to expand in many states. The number of graduating ophthalmologists and the number of ophthalmology residency positions have been stagnant since 2012, whereas the number of patients requiring ocular surgeries has only grown.1
The need for surgical comanagement continues to increase, but many optometrists have not made the leap. We will discuss the benefits of comanaging surgical patients with ophthalmologists as well as some of the most common complications and how to address them in patients who undergo refractive and cataract surgery.
Comanagement of patients with keratoconus
Erin Tomiyama, OD, PhD, FAAO
The most common type of corneal ectasia, keratoconus presents in adolescence and stabilizes during the third or fourth decade of adulthood.1,2 Patients can suffer mild to severe visual impairment from irregular astigmatism, myopia, vertical coma, or corneal scarring. Management begins with spectacles, often progresses to rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses, and may advance to corneal transplantation if the patient cannot tolerate the lenses or see adequately with them.1 Some 10% to 20% of patients require corneal transplant surgery.3
Although its prevalence varies, keratoconus is thought to be approximately 54 in 100,000, and to affect individuals of all biological sexes and all ethnicities.4-6 Patients present with blurred vision due to irregular astigmatism and/or coma, the most common higher-order aberration in this population.1,5 They often report decreased vision with spectacles and major changes in refraction that lead them to replace spectacles within a year of their last prescription.
iHealthScreen Inc. applies for FDA 510K Submission for iPredict
Sydney Crago, Editor, Modern Retina
iHealthScreen has submitted an application for an FDA 510K clearance for the iPredictTM AI Eye Screening System, which provides fully automated age-related macular degeneration (AMD) screening. The screening includes retinal imaging and immediate reporting of actionable results, providing an easier path to accurately and efficiently screen people over 50 for AMD.
Once high-resolution images of the patient’s eyes have been captured using a color fundus camera and submitted to the iPredictTM AI System, the screening results are available in a fully automated report in less than 60 seconds. The entire test can easily and reliably be completed within 5 minutes.
Vision by Design Conference 2023 announced by the American Academy of Orthokeratology and Myopia Control
Optometry Times Staff Reports
The American Academy of Orthokeratology and Myopia Control (AAOMC) has announced its annual conference, Vision by Design, taking place September 6-9, 2023, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center.
The event brings together experts, researchers, and industry professionals from around the world to share the latest advancements and best practices in the field of orthokeratology and myopia control.
Cell therapy for corneal endothelial disease gains traction
Lynda Charters
Reviewed by Edward Holland, MD
In March 2023, Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) approved Aurion Biotech’s allogeneic cell therapy, Vyznova, to treat patients with bullous keratopathy. This approval is believed to be the first for an allogenic cell therapy for corneal endothelial disease.
Healthy cells from a donor cornea are propagated in a novel, multistep process, according to a company news release. The innovation is that this approach enables fully differentiated corneal endothelial cells to regenerate outside the body. Cultured cells from 1 donor can be manufactured to produce treatments for more than 100 recipient eyes. Current standards of care require 1 donor cornea for each corneal transplantation procedure.
World No Tobacco Day 2023: Smoking linked to early vision loss and eye diseases
Martin David Harp, Associate Editor, Ophthalmology Times
The World Health Organization (WHO) and many other public health companies are celebrating World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) Wednesday, May 31, 2023.
According to the CDC, more than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking. For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness.
World No Tobacco Day helps to bring focus onto risk factors for early vision loss associated with smoking.
New FDA blood donor recommendations could ease restrictions on cornea donations from queer men
David Hutton, Managing Editor, Ophthalmology Times; Kassi Jackson, Editor
Using a set of individual risk-based questions to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted HIV, the FDA recently finalized recommendations for assessing blood donor eligibility. Many advocates hope this could lead to similar changes for guidelines limiting cornea donations from gay and bisexual men.
Guidelines currently prohibit cornea donations from gay or bisexual men who have sex with another man (MSM) in the last 5 years of their life, even if it was a monogamous relationship, while heterosexual individuals who have had sex with an HIV-infected individual as little as 1 year before death are permitted to donate the tissue.
Last month, the FDA updated its recommendations for assessing blood donor eligibility, which includes individual risk-based questions to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted HIV. These questions will be the same for every donor, regardless of sexual orientation, sex, or gender. Blood establishments may now implement these recommendations by revising their donor history questionnaires and procedures.
AI used to advance drug delivery system for glaucoma and other chronic diseases
David Hutton, Managing Editor, Ophthalmology Times
A team of researchers at Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine has used artificial intelligence models and machine-learning algorithms to successfully predict which components of amino acids that make up therapeutic proteins are most likely to safely deliver therapeutic drugs to animal eye cells.
The project, a collaboration with researchers from the University of Maryland, could be the key to unlock new and more tolerable drug treatments for common chronic blinding eye diseases, including glaucoma and macular degeneration, which affect 3 million and about 20 million people in the United States, respectively.
According to the Johns Hopkins Medicine news release, current drug therapies for these diseases, consisting of multiple daily eyedrops or frequent eye injections, are effective, but such delivery systems may be difficult to sustain and tolerate over time, and have encouraged scientific efforts to develop delivery systems that would bind to components of eye cells and safely extend the therapeutic impact of the medications they carry.
