What is the most rewarding part about treating dry eye disease?
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Click here to read the cover story, Dry eye care navigates growing physician shortage
Over the last several years, I have come to learn why treating dry eye is so important for our patients.
Firstly, as a busy cataract and refractive surgeon, I have come to appreciate why optimizing the ocular surface is critical for my patients to have excellent visual outcomes after surgery. Oftentimes, our cataract or refractive surgery patients have never known or been told that they have dry eye disease. By addressing and treating their ocular surface disease prior to surgery, I have been able to obtain more reliable measurements and avoid refractive surprises as well as equip my patients with a dry eye regimen that permits them to treat this chronic condition and ensures them excellent vision quality after surgery. Happy surgical patients can become strong advocates for your practice.
Secondly, dry eye patients can be some of the most vulnerable patients in your clinic. Often, these patients present to me for their second or third opinions as they have felt that their dry eye was not appropriately diagnosed or managed. They are often distraught as other health care providers may have not given them the time of day or many feasible therapeutic options. By listening to these patients and holding their hand through their dry eye journey, you can not only improve patients’ quality of vision but also grow ambassadors for your practice. Patients will embrace and recommend a practice to family and friends if the practitioner took the time to listen to them and help them in a time of need.
Thirdly, it is a great time in the ophthalmic space to treat dry eye. When I was in training, we had a few dry eye-specific medications that were used in rotation, and many times, insurance coverage dictated which medications patients could use. However, in recent years, we now have numerous therapeutics targeted toward specific types of dry eye with improving insurance coverage. We now have Miebo (perfluorohexyloctane ophthalmic solution, Bausch + Lomb), which is a medication specifically indicated for evaporative dry eye. We have nasal sprays, such as Tyrvaya (varenicline solution, Viatris), that stimulate endogenous tear production. We also have many lid margin treatments that we can employ in our practices for meibomian gland dysfunction. These lid margin treatments also introduce a cash-pay source of revenue for the practice as they are not typically covered by insurance. With the launch of Xdemvy (lotilaner ophthalmic solution 0.25%, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals) for the treatment of Demodex blepharitis, I have come to see how many patients are grateful that a physician can offer them a therapy for a condition that was often underdiagnosed without effective treatment options. It has truly become much easier to talk about dry eye with our patients because we have several different treatments we can choose from and tailor to our patients’ conditions and lifestyles.
These are all reasons why I think dry eye is a meaningful condition to treat and continues to be a significant practice-builder for me. Dry eye might not be the bulk of one’s practice, but if you incorporate it in a meaningful way for the right patients, you can expand your practice and have fantastic vision outcomes for your medical and surgical patients. I think these reasons can resonate with a lot of doctors.
- For more information:
- Nandini Venkateswaran, MD, is a cataract, cornea and refractive surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts