IRIS Registry gives clinicians comparative data for individual practices

LOS ANGELES — While still relatively young, the IRIS Registry is already yielding clinically useful information at a practice level, according to David W. Parke II, MD, CEO of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

“The promise of big data is that we’re going to be able to statistically look at uncommon indications for common procedures, comorbidities, subpopulations, therapeutic comparisons. The big thing is we can do this not in a clinical trial with a discrete, very rigid protocol, but with what happens in the real world,” Parke told colleagues at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.

David W. Parke

The IRIS Registry is now the single largest specialty-based registry in the world, accounting for more than 100 terabytes of data and representing 35.3 million unique patients and 134 million patient visits, according to Parke.

In the first 3.5 years of the registry’s existence, data on 4.7 million cataract surgeries have been recorded and are available for analysis.

“Each of us in our own practice think we know how our patients do, but do we actually have the data? And how does it compare to the nation?” Parke asked.

Applying analytics to the IRIS Registry data can answer those questions and provide that comparison data, he said. – by Patricia Nale, ELS

Reference:

Parke DW. Big data as the driver of ophthalmic innovation. Presented at: American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting; May 5-9, 2017; Los Angeles.

Disclosure: Parke reports no relevant financial disclosures.

American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Meeting

IRIS Registry gives clinicians comparative data for individual practices