Jeanne Gonzalez

More than two dozen ophthalmic codes have been selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for reevaluation, including some codes for high-volume procedures, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

The addition of a second drug to a glaucoma patient’s medication regimen tends to increase the time it takes the patient to refill the original drug prescription, according to a recent study. The lag time in getting the drug prescription refilled — more than 2 weeks’ delay in almost one-fifth of cases, according to the study authors — may mean the patient is not taking the medications properly or is taking only one of the drugs.

Ophthalmologists and chemotherapists must collaborate more effectively to determine the best drug regimen for each patient with an ocular manifestation stemming from an autoimmune disease, experts say. Many ophthalmologists are not taking full advantage of the immunosuppressive agents available to treat ocular inflammation in these patients, according to an expert panel.

The prevalence of allergy has risen during the past 20 years, but little is known about why allergies manifest when they do and why their effect varies among families.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Patients who received a sustained-release fluocinolone acetonide implant had a significantly lower rate of uveitis after implantation than in the year before implantation, according to Glenn J. Jaffe, MD. The need for adjunctive therapy was also reduced in treated eyes, he said.

Implementing an electronic medical records system can be time-consuming and expensive, but in the long run can reward a practice with increased efficiency and revenue, according to one expert.

The second-generation Millennium TSV25 vitreoretinal surgery system from Bausch & Lomb introduces improvements over the original system while preserving that earlier version’s advantages, according to several users.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A shift in research focus from disease treatment to disease prevention, now under way at the National Institutes of Health, is creating “much excitement for advancement in the field of vision research,” said Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, director of the NIH.

Daniel Garrett, senior vice president of Prevent Blindness America, which co-sponsored the event with AdvaMed, welcomed attendees, flanked by House Vision Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., at left, and Gene Green, D-Texas, at right.

The latest generation of refractive surgical lasers is achieving results that are “changing the goal” of refractive surgery, a leading refractive surgeon said.