News

As the end of the year approaches, we wanted to take a look back at the predictions our Editorial Advisory Board members made for 2016 and see how far we’ve come in the last 12 months.

Pharmacologic products and devices in development continue to gain momentum in the glaucoma treatment armamentarium.

Advances in treatments for keratoconus and presbyopia in 2016 continued to move patients toward emmetropia.

Looking back over the past year and into the near future, Eric D. Donnenfeld, MD, Robert H. Osher, MD, and Mark Packer, MD, spoke to Ophthalmology Times about developments in diagnostic products and other tools used in cataract surgery. In addition, they discussed combination microinvasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) and office-based surgery as new trends.

Cataract surgeons in the United States have long been envious of the IOL options available to their international colleagues. Finally, in 2016, American ophthalmologists gained access to some novel IOLs such as the Tecnis Symfony Extended Range of Vision IOL and the Tecnis Symfony Toric IOL (Abbott) that were approved by the FDA. According to leading cataract surgeons who spoke to Ophthalmology Times, these simultaneous approvals rank as the biggest cataract surgery news story of the year.

A single event stood out in everyone’s mind when Ophthalmology Times asked experts to think back on the year in glaucoma surgery: the July 29 approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the CyPass Micro-Stent.

A review of some of the most significant advances in medications for cataract surgery during the past year revealed a mix of the expected with a few surprises.

Laser techniques have fundamentally changed the cataract surgery landscape. New, versatile platforms have made surgery safer and provided superior clinical outcomes precisely, consistently and predictably.

As we sit down together with our families and friends for Thanksgiving dinner this year, we thought reflecting on the great innovations in the field of ophthalmology since the turn of this new century seemed timely (a topic that is a natural by-product of the marriage between a retinal surgeon and a pediatric ophthalmologist!).

From movie stars to professional athletes, these famous people do not let their visual impairments hold them back.

A case of cataract surgery with planned presbyopia-correcting IOL implantation– complicated by posterior capsule rupture and a postoperative refractive surprise– reinforced important lessons and provided a new revelation to one experienced surgeon.

Findings from an updated analysis of outcomes at a single center reaffirm the safety of femtosecond laser capsulotomy by showing it is associated with a low rate of anterior capsule tears.

Improving practice efficiency is more likely to be successful when undertaken with a long-term view as well as an understanding of trends in the healthcare environment.

Mindfulness can help physicians manage stress-and may be effective in thwarting burnout.

Not long ago, whilst on my way to work, I found myself listening to one of those call-in doctor radio programs. People gave their first names and then described some problem they, a family member, or a friend were experiencing. The all-knowing medical expert would then ask a few questions and steer the caller in a certain direction.

Sarah Baroody, MD, shares her experience and changes in functionality since implementing an electronic medical record platform in practice.

One of the hardest parts of being a manager is the stage on which we stand when we make mistakes!

Photorefractive intrastromal cross-linking is being developed for non-invasive correction of low refractive errors.

Research. Industry. Philanthropy. These three facets-each with a unique purpose-will come together for the 2017 installment of the annual Glaucoma Research Foundation (GRF) Glaucoma 360 meeting. The three-day event will occur Feb. 2 to 4, 2016.

Adding the corneal inlay into a general or refractive surgery practice can be a great benefit to patients and the practice when done correctly.

Despite growing profits over a decade, an ophthalmic practice’s optical dispensary profits were not growing along the same curve. This case study highlights how an optical dispensary inventory management firm may be able to identify strategies to boost capture-rate underperformance.

Regardless of the outcome of the presidential race, there is much about practice management and leadership to be learned from mainstream media’s coverage of the two front-runners’ race to the White House.

Tear osmolarity testing provides clinicians the opportunity to detect disease and select treatments to restore ocular surface health.

Researchers studied the magnitude of bacterial load reduction on the surface of the skin 20 minutes after application of saline containing 0.01% pure hypochlorous acid as the preservative to the skin below the lower eyelid.

A new handheld, tear osmolarity device could enhance the convenience and reliability of dry eye screening and monitoring and be more affordable for many practices.

A novel potent epithelial sodium channel blocker seems to be a safe and well-tolerated therapy in patients with symptoms of mild-to-moderate dry eye disease compared with placebo.

Trifocal IOLs can provide good uncorrected vision at near, intermediate, and far. Outcomes in a series of 30 patients show that a toric version of a trifocal IOL (AT Lisa tri 939MP, Carl Zeiss Meditec) delivers those benefits for patients with > 1 D of corneal astigmatism.