News

It's the season to be thinking of ways to create extra sales to increase the profit picture for your office.

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Foundation for Eye Research is accepting nominations for the 2013 AFER/Pfizer Ophthalmics/Carl Camras Translational Research Awards.

New surgical procedures and advances in structural imaging were once again the focus of interest in glaucoma during 2011.

For the retina subspecialty, the past year was one of controversy, technologic advances, and an important approval from the FDA, as well as a surprise decision from the agency.

While physicians who treat Medicare patients are confronting a drastic pay cut Jan. 1, a number of legislators are scrambling, again, to block the scheduled reduction with a permanent solution.

David F. Weeks was a quarter master in the U.S. Army, earned a business administration degree, and raised funds for philanthropic causes - all before Jules Stein, MD, hired him in 1961 to lead the newly formed Research to Prevent Blindness.

Two reports issued by a federal health-care agency, claiming that screening and treatment of glaucoma have been ineffective, ignore more than 30 years of evidence to the contrary.

The author addresses the benefits of agreeableness in the workplace.

This year was one in which the femtosecond laser and its applications in refractive and cataract surgery and variations in the applications of crosslinking really began to blossom.

A recent trip provided the author the opportunity to visit two countries on two different continents and learn a little about their health-care systems, and, more specifically, how they care for patients with cataracts.

The FDA has approved aflibercept for the treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

As leading cataract surgeons reflect on the newest advances in the field over the past year, the femtosecond laser maintained its place in the spotlight.

Heidelberg Engineering’s technical service division has moved into a technical services facility in Rhode Island specifically built and designed to meet the company’s increased capacity needs.

Safilo Group has signed an agreement with StyleMark for the acquisition of the Polaroid Eyewear business.

Kayla Helferich, 8, from South Carolina, is the grand prize winner in Prevent Blindness America’s (PBA’s) “Most Beautiful Eyes” contest. Helferich has been awarded a $25,000 scholarship and will become the face of Star Pupils, PBA’s signature children's eye health program.

XOMA Ltd. and its partner, Les Laboratoires Servier, plan to implement a broader phase III program to test the monoclonal antibody gevokizumab, or XOMA 052, in patients in whom non-infectious uveitis (NIU) involving the intermediate and/or posterior segments of the eye has been diagnosed.

After receiving approval from its scientific advisory board, Retina Implant AG will begin the multicenter phase of the company’s second clinical trial in humans, the company announced.

A newly discovered protein in the eye of the fruit fly may shed light on blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa in humans.

The percentage of adults with diabetes who reported suffering from visual impairments declined significantly between 1997 and 2010, according to an analysis of data from the National Health Interview Survey.

An algorithm for addressing corneal scarring might avoid the need for most corneal transplantation procedures by using the law of optics for optimally shaping the front surface of the cornea. Arun Gulani, MD, MS, uses refractive PRK to treat corneal scars and explained how his system works.

Researchers in Israel have completed a clinical trial that successfully tested the use of gene therapy to restore sight to patients suffering from Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA).

Retinal research will benefit from a multiyear financial pledge to the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) department of ophthalmology and visual sciences from Parent Petroleum Co., a partner with the nonprofit organization Hope for Vision.

Jost B. Jonas, MD, has been named the 2011 recipient of The Glaucoma Foundation’s (TGF) Robert Ritch Award for Innovation and Excellence in Glaucoma.

STAAR Surgical Co. has received CE mark approval for a single-piece toric IOL (nanoFLEX Toric Collamer Single Piece IOL). The IOL, which is designed for patients who have cataracts and astigmatism, was approved for correction of 1.0 D to 4.0 D of cylinder in 0.5-D steps.

Iridex Corp. has entered into a license and distribution agreement with Alcon. The agreement covers a line of cannula products used in vitrectomy procedures (GreenTip Soft Tip Cannula) and license rights to the associated patented technology.

Patient enrollment has begun in a phase III clinical trial of ISV-502 (AzaSite Plus, InSite Vision) and ISV-305 (DexaSite, InSite Vision) to evaluate the efficacy and safety of both product candidates simultaneously for the treatment of blepharitis. The DOUBle (Dual Ophthalmic agents Used in Blepharitis) study will seek to enroll approximately 900 patients with moderate-to-severe blepharitis in a four-arm trial.

The FDA has cleared a spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) device (RTVue, Optovue) to measure central corneal power, curvature, and thickness in human corneas, before and after cataract surgery.

The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to sirolimus (DE-109, Santen) for the treatment of chronic/refractory anterior non-infectious uveitis, non-infectious intermediate uveitis, non-infectious panuveitis, and non-infectious uveitis affecting the posterior segment of the eye.