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BLOG: Dry eye finds a place in academic journals
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Several years ago it was entirely possible to be a true, cutting-edge expert in the diagnosis and treatment of dry eye disease without ever cracking open a single journal article. As a matter of fact, it was entirely likely that your knowledge base increased in direct proportion to the number of cold and frosties you cracked open in the company of other like-minded, tortured souls who also treated DED. It was easy to wear this distinction as a badge of honor because, well, there just wasn’t a whole lotta love being spread on the DED world in the corridors of ophthalmic publishing houses.
If memory serves me, the first article I commented on here was on the potential for queen bee honey extract as a DED medication. That’s not even mainstream in SoCal yoga studios.
Boy, how the world has changed. We now have everything from a grand opus like the recent Current Opinion piece from Milner et al (et al, et al, et al) to a sure-to-provoke declarative piece from dry eye OG Hank Perry (that pretty much no one saw in 2016 until it surfaced on Twitter last month) that boldly states there is nothing to know about DED except blepharitis. Full stop. There’s so much stake-placing and line-drawing in the heretofore ignored DED space that we’ve gone from something like the mystical, mysterious game of Wei-kei (Go) to something that looks more like three-dimensional Stratego.
Heck, even the venerable academic centers in Cleveburg are setting up DED “Centers of Excellence” and publishing.
My take? There’s room for everyone. Many of the “et al” on Mark’s tome are rather long in the tooth when it comes to DED. Maybe not as much as Hank, but hardly newbies. Others are truly new to the space, and new blood and the new ideas that come along with it can’t help but be good for our patients. It’s rather unlikely that you’ll see too very much in the way of academic citations that include my name; I’m pretty sure there’s precisely one out there, and only Carol Shields knows about it. But I do have thoughts on many of these articles, and I’m sure you’ll be shocked to know that I plan to share them (starting with a review of Milner et al).
So, to my old friends and fellow dry eye OGs, a hat tip and a smile at the prospect of hearing from you more often. As for the newcomers attracted to the bright lights and big city excitement of the hot dot? Well, welcome aboard.
Fasten your seatbelts.
References:
Milner MS, et al. Curr Opin Ophthalmol. 2017;doi:10.1097/01.icu.0000512373.81749.b7.
Rynerson JM, et al. Clin Ophthalmol. 2016;doi:10.2147/OPTH.S114674.
Disclosure: White reports he is a consultant for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan, Shire and Eyemaginations; is on the speakers board for Bausch + Lomb, Allergan and Shire; and has a financial interest in TearScience.