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Congress members, vision advocates, industry meet to champion ophthalmic care
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Image: AdvaMed |
WASHINGTON — Legislators, vision advocates and members of the ophthalmic industry convened here in May to call for increased funding for ocular disease research and patient access to ophthalmic care.
Members of the Congressional Vision Caucus, Prevent Blindness America and AdvaMed, a medical industry group, discussed how to raise awareness of diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and cataract.
“We’re here to ensure that adequate resources are allocated towards eye diseases for better quality of life,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.
One of the goals of the event was “to educate Congress and staff,” said Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas.
“Nearly every day, we’re seeing things change,” he said.
Rep. Green said he intended to introduce legislation in the House that would increase funding for research at the National Eye Institute and the Centers for Disease Control into prevention of eye disease, to increase patient access to care and to improve access to vision rehabilitation centers.
The event, co-sponsored by Prevent Blindness America and AdvaMed, also featured a physician speaker, Kerry D. Solomon, MD, of the Storm Eye Institute in South Carolina.
“It’s really the technology and new surgical techniques that allow us to diagnose eye diseases much earlier than ever before and allow us to treat diseases in a way we never imagined before, let alone do on a day-to-day basis,” Dr. Solomon told attendees.
Dr. Solomon noted that the outcome of cataract surgery has changed from simply removing the cataract to providing vision better than the patient has ever experienced.
He noted that ophthalmologists routinely use ultrasound to measure the eye to eliminate the need for spectacles after cataract surgery and use wavefront technology – based on principles borrowed from astrophysics — to improve accuracy in refractive surgery.
“We now can take those same wavefront systems and evaluate the way light exits the eye to build a 3-D wavefront analysis,” he said. “Studies and research on this sort of technology will continue to improve the quality of people’s vision, perhaps better than ever before.”
The tried-and-true test of people’s vision – black letters on a white background – is also changing as researchers learn more about subjects such as contrast sensitivity, he said.
“What we’re coming to learn through vision research is that not all 20/20 rates, nor the ability to discern letters, is the same,” Dr. Solomon said.
A better understanding of contrast sensitivity may help improve the quality of life for cataract patients and also increase road safety as older patients remain more active, Dr. Solomon said.
In addition to the speakers, the event also featured an exhibition with demonstrations of new diagnostic and treatment technologies for diabetic retinopathy, AMD, glaucoma and cataract.
The Congressional Vision Caucus is co-chaired by Reps. Green and Ros-Lehtinen, Rep. David Price, D-N.C. and Rep. Patrick Tiberi, R-Ohio. The Caucus, formed in 2003, is dedicated to strengthening and stimulating national dialog on vision-related problems and disabilities, according to information on the group’s Web site. The group is focused on three priorities: research, prevention and public health, and access to care.
Prevent Blindness America describes itself as a volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight.
AdvaMed, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, is an industry advocacy group representing manufacturers of medical devices and diagnostic products.
For Your Information:
- The Web site for the Congressional Vision Caucus is www.house.gov/green/cvc/.
- The Web site for Prevent Blindness America is www.preventblindness.org.
- The Web site for AdvaMed is www.advamed.org.
- Jeanne Michelle Gonzalez is an OSN Staff Writer who covers all aspects of ophthalmology, specializing in practice management, regulatory and legislative issues. She focuses geographically on Latin America.