Sustained delivery is needed to ensure that patients do not have to remember to take their medication every day.
The future of glaucoma will likely not resemble the current state of management of the disease, with numerous advances on the horizon, according to Harry Quigley MD, the A. Edward Maumenee Professor of Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Delivering the Bryan St. L. Liddy Lecture on the topic of the future of glaucoma therapy during the annual Sally Letson Symposium, Dr. Quigley stressed that patients are looking for treatments other than daily administration of eye drops.
Related: Reshaping medical treatment of glaucoma management
“If I quit my career without having gotten rid of eye drops, then I will have failed,” Dr. Quigley told symposium attendees. “We need sustained delivery in some form, so patients do not have to remember to take something everyday. Sustained delivery of IOP drugs will get around a lot of problems.”
One of the advantages of sustained delivery tr with patients, according to published research, which showed that glaucoma patients would consider these alternatives to daily eye drops if they avoided the need for surgery or showed superior efficacy over eye drops. (J Glaucoma. 2018 Apr;27(4):328-335.)
Patient adherence
Glaucoma patients have been largely left on their own to stick to a daily regimen of using eye drops. Some technology innovations have looked at trying to increase adherence. These include cell phone robo-calls or texts, noted Dr. Quigley.
In one study, individuals randomly selected to receive reminders were more adherent to their therapy than those who were not. They increased adherence from 53% to 64% (P < .05). However, there was no statistical change amongst the 32 participants in the control group. JAMA Ophthalmol.2014 Jul;132(7):845-50.
Another innovation is the Kali Drop device, a wireless monitoring device that provides accurate adherence monitoring, uses telephone feedback, and sends data to an ophthalmologist’s office in real time.
“It will pop up on your screen if they (patients) have not touched their drops,” said Dr. Quigley.
