AAO 2026: Comprehensive ophthalmologists are the uveitis front line

Inflammatory Eye Disease Awareness Week, observed October 19 to 25, 2026, by Prevent Blindness, draws attention to conditions such as uveitis that can threaten vision if not recognized and managed promptly. In an interview recorded earlier this month at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) 2026 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, Timothy Janetos, MD, an assistant professor of ophthalmology and uveitis specialist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, told Ophthalmology Times that comprehensive and pediatric ophthalmologists are the front line of uveitis care. He also discussed when to refer patients to a specialist and the limited access to uveitis specialists in the United States.

How has the role of comprehensive and pediatric ophthalmologists in uveitis triage changed?

Comprehensive ophthalmologists are usually the first clinicians to see patients with uveitis. Uveitis specialists are not common, so specialty care is not always accessible. At the same time, patients are becoming more complex. More patients are receiving immunosuppression, more are taking long-term therapy for a chronic cancer diagnosis, and many are receiving intravitreal injections. As a result, Janetos said, masquerade and infectious uveitis are becoming more frequent.

Pediatric ophthalmologists play a similar role, because children with uveitis are often asymptomatic. “So they are the front line for sure,” Janetos said.

When should patients with uveitis be referred to a specialist?

Janetos recommends referral when inflammation does not respond as expected. That includes inflammation that initially responds to corticosteroids and then worsens, or that returns each time corticosteroids are tapered. These patients may need long-term treatment other than corticosteroids. Suspected retinal necrosis or endophthalmitis requires urgent attention. “That is really an emergency,” he said, advising that these patients see a specialist within 1 or 2 days.

What is not discussed enough in uveitis care?

Access to specialists, Janetos said. Many therapeutic innovations are on the horizon, but only specialists can ultimately deliver them, and few ophthalmologists choose to subspecialize in uveitis. Multiple US states have no specialists trained in uveitis. “You can have ... a million wonder drugs and a million things that work,” he said. “But if you don’t have people to take care of those patients or to prescribe them, then it becomes a real issue.”

Janetos reviews can’t-miss uveitis diagnoses, warning signs, and how to distinguish infectious from noninfectious causes in part 1 of this interview.

For more from the meeting, visit Ophthalmology Times’ AAO 2026 coverage.