Patients’ adherence to drug therapy to control
chronic diseases is notoriously poor, particularly
when the disease is asymptomatic. Moreover,
self-reporting of adherence correlates very
poorly with reality. How can you improve this situation…
Category: Glaucoma
Reconsidering the Gold Standard of Tonometry
IOP is one of the key metrics used to monitor the
health of an eye, especially an eye with glaucoma.
Tonometry is the act of estimating the IOP. It is not a
measurement of eye pressure, only an estimate. An
exact measurement of IOP requires li…
The Role of Surgical Intervention in Reducing Costs
Several years ago, when a senior
official at the FDA was asked why
there was such a difference in getting
licensing for glaucoma medicines
compared to glaucoma devices, the
answer, slightly in jest, was, “The device
has only got to show it…
An Industry Perspective
Anyone reading Glaucoma Today knows that
some 3 million Americans suffer from this neurodegenerative
disease. Thanks to its size, this
market continues to attract extensive investment
in drug development, which has provided physicians
and the…
The Literature
h4SHORT-TERM REPEATABILITY OF DIURNAL
INTRAOCULAR PRESSURE PATTERNS IN
GLAUCOMATOUS INDIVIDUALSsup1/sup/h4
emRealini T, Weinreb N, Wisniewski S.*br /
Ophthalmology/em, January 2011
strongDo patients treated for primary …
Sidebar: Holding on to Goldmann Tonometry
The problems of a lack of precision and accuracy with
Goldmann tonometry, still the gold standard for better or
for worse, have been discussed for decades. Although
pointing out its shortfalls and contemplating the development
of more accurate…
CHIEF MEDICAL EDITOR’S PAGE: Carpe Diem
Economic discussions have dominated the
national conversation of the past few years.
The current health care system appears to
be unsustainable. Medicare A is projected
to go bankrupt in 2019, health insurance premiums
have doubled since 2001…
Reducing the Preservative Load in Glaucoma Therapy
Despite the many advances in our understanding
of glaucoma, the only available treatments
of the disease are aimed at lowering
IOP, and IOP-lowering medications are usually
our initial therapy. Consequently, unmet needs in glaucoma
treatment …
Why Do I Perform Research?
When my 2 1/2-year-old son asks, “Why are
trees green? Why did Mama sneeze? Why
did baby Alex spit up?” I smile. I smile
because I am amazed at how inquisitive
human beings are, even at such a young age. I smile
because others once had th…
The Ganglion Cell Complex
The measurement of the perifoveal ganglion cell
layer recently emerged as a new diagnostic
parameter in glaucoma. Various manufacturers
of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography
(SD-OCT) systems have released or will soon release
softwa…
Marketing Methodologies for High-Growth Practices
As you are passing between your clinic’s examination
rooms on a tiring Thursday evening—your
back still sore from the previous afternoon’s surgeries—
your assistant grabs your shoulder to
alert you that tonight is the deadline to renew…
Evolutions and Revolutions in Glaucoma Surgery
While I was refining my suturing technique
during the plastic surgery rotation of my
internship, my mentor, a successful plastic
surgeon on the island of Oahu, gave me
some advice. He noticed that I varied my suturing technique
a bit with eac…
The Zhongshan Angle Closure Prevention Trial
By the year 2020, primary angleclosure
glaucoma (PACG) will
account for half of the 11 million
people who are estimated to be
bilaterally blind from glaucoma.sup1/sup China is
home to the majority of people with
PACG worldwide. An estima…
Is Glaucoma Screening Worthwhile?
Glaucoma currently ranks as a leading cause of
irreversible blindness worldwide, but many of
those afflicted are unaware that they have this
painless, progressive neurodegenerative disease.
Visual impairment is costly in terms of lost producti…
Maximizing the Benefits of Topical Therapy
The options for the topical medical therapy of
glaucoma have greatly increased during the past
3 decades. The introduction of new classes of
medication, often with several choices within a
class, lower IOP more effectively than ever before. Th…
5 Questions with Louis R. Pasquale, MD
strongWhat drew you to epidemiology?/strongbr /
In answering this question, I like to recount the story of
the Broad Street pump. In 1850, people in London were
dying of diarrheal illness at an alarming rate. Dr. John Snow
used the basic…
Word From the Cutting Edge
Early in March 2011, emGlaucoma Today/em held the
third annual Cutting Edge: Innovative Glaucoma
Surgery Symposium. Iqbal Ike Ahmed, MD, and
Richard Lewis, MD, served as the course directors
of this 1-day event that brought together clinic…
Optimizing Glaucoma Practice Models
h3After the Accountable
Care Act, physicians face
a new world./h3
strongBy William L. Rich III, MD/strongbr /
The passage of the Patient Protection and
Accountable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 marked
the culmination of the US government…
Highlights of the AGS Annual Meeting
Every year, the AGS meeting features presentations of
the best in glaucoma research. This year, more than
600 registrants enjoyed 68 poster and 24 paper presentations
as well as a glaucoma surgery day, several
symposia, roundtables, workshops,…
Can Being Overweight Protect Against Glaucoma?
Results from the 10 year prospective Rotterdam study showed that for every point increase in BMI, there was a 7% reduction in risk for a woman developing glaucoma. A one point increase in BMI is roughly equal to 6 pounds…