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BLOG: Lumify gets the red out — finally
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Breaking news from the folks at Bausch + Lomb: Lumify has cracked the code to safely bring the most famous tagline in all of eye care to reality. That’s right, boys and girls; you now have an answer to all of those patients who stream through the front door of your practices suffering from the scourge of red eyes. Yes, now you can help these despondent and downtrodden masses GET THE RED OUT! (Can I say that? Is it still a trademarked phrase?)
Remember when I told you that we are all red eye doctors? Countless electrons have been spilled in the duty of informing you how to diagnose the underlying cause of any one red eye. Once diagnosed, another terabyte of data is consumed every hour in the pursuit of a cure for that causative entity. Don’t believe me? Spend a moment or two on Twitter and search #DryEye. Oy, what have I done? In reality, once you’ve nailed the etiology of a red eye, you have a very good chance of making your patient feel a whole lot better through a variety of means.
Feel better, but as often as not, still sporting a red eye.
Along comes Lumify. A tiny little bit of brimonidine — one drop of 0.025%, to be exact — applied to the eye and within a minute or so most redness miraculously disappears. I was first tipped off about Lumify 3 or 4 years ago and have been eagerly awaiting its arrival. We just did a little experiment with the staff at SkyVision. One hundred percent of the staff members and doctors who put a drop of Lumify in one or both eyes experienced a rapid and very impressive decrease in redness. As advertised, all of the treated eyes remained white and quiet for at least 6 hours. On label, it looks like you can apply Lumify every 8 hours without problems. Magically, it appears that all of the common side effects we see with brimonidine in glaucoma doses do not seem to arise.
Crazy, huh? For 30 years I’ve been telling my patients that every single eye drop meant to reduce redness was not healthy for their eyes except under extraordinary circumstances. You know, like if your boss is taking you out to dinner and your boss is Jeff Bezos. Or you’ve been invited to Harry and Meghan’s wedding. Big, major life stuff. Apparently I will have to change my tune now.
With Lumify, it looks like almost everyone can have white eyes almost on demand.
Disclosure: White reports he is a consultant to Allergan, Shire, Sun, Kala, Ocular Science, Rendia, TearLab, Eyevance and Omeros; is a speaker for Shire, Allergan, Omeros and Sun; and has an ownership interest in Ocular Science and Eyevance.