At-home OCT monitoring of retinal disease a possibility

HONOLULU — A home-care OCT monitoring device could reduce the cost and burden of treatment for patients with retinal disease, according to a researcher here.

Claus von der Burchard, MD, and colleagues have developed an off-axis full-field time-domain OCT technology intended for patient use at home to monitor their retinal disease.

“What [age-related macular degeneration and diabetic eye disease] have in common is that they can be treated very effectively with injections,” von der Burchard said in a news conference highlighting high-tech advances in vision research at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting. “The problem we are facing is, what is the right treatment interval?”

Such technology has the potential of identifying when treatment should be given, giving way to more prompt treatment and consequently more effective treatment, he said. Also, such technology would relieve the physical burden for patients traveling to their appointments.

“Often [patients] are elderly, are immobile, they are heavily impaired in their vision, so they cannot drive cars and rely on relatives to drive them,” von der Burchard said.

Optimal results would require daily or weekly monitoring, he said.

The device is still in development, with modifications being considered to make it less expensive. In its current form, the device would cost, perhaps, $5,000, von der Burchard said, although in its final form, $1,000 would not be unrealistic.

“To put it in perspective, treatment costs over $10,000 in the first year of AMD, so compared to that, it isn’t that much, and we can possibly save a number of injections with a smarter treatment regimen, so the device could possibly pay for itself,” he said. – by Patricia Nale, ELS

Disclosure: von der Burchard reports no relevant financial disclosures.