Part 2: Biggest innovations in ophthalmology in 50 years

In celebration of Ophthalmology Times 50th anniversary, we asked leading experts in the field what they see as the biggest innovation in ophthalmology in the last 5 decades.

Video Transcript:

Editor's note: The below transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Kelly Donovan, MD:

This precedes my time, but I think probably, from what I understand, OCT, I would agree. Optical coherence tomography probably changed our ability the most to see diseases, categorize them appropriately, and then determine who needs treatment. But I think what revolutionized treatment the most thereafter would be the anti-VEGF agent, the biologics. So now, with those 2 innovations, we're able to identify the correct patient and give them the correct treatment to help save vision. And I think we've been able to do that for a huge, huge number of people across the world.

Nita Valikodath, MD, MS:

So I think one of the biggest advances is the advances in imaging techniques that we have. We now have portable handheld OCT devices. We have fundus photos with [fluorescein angiography, or] FA and OCT capabilities combined. We are coming out with other advances in OCT findings at the University of Michigan that hopefully will be on the pipeline soon. So I do think in retina overall, and especially in pediatrics, we are advancing in our imaging capabilities, which allow us to diagnose and manage patients better.

Oleg Alekseev, MD, PhD:

I think probably the development of OCT, optical coherence tomography, is, I would say, certainly at the top there. It is a very rapid, very information-rich testing modality that's noninvasive, relatively inexpensive, gives us an entirely new insight into retinal diseases. So that would be my choice on the diagnostic side of things. And then, of course, being a specialist in inherited retinal diseases, I'm biased toward that field. And so I would say that the development and FDA approval of Luxturna's gene therapy for RPE65 associated retinal degenerations is absolutely the biggest breakthrough, at least in my part of the ophthalmology field.

Tania Tai, MD:

I think there have been so many innovations over the past 50 years, it's hard to really name just one. I think one game changer, and that was not something recent, is laser trabeculoplasty, because it really opened a new venue of treatment for patients that can be done in the office setting. It's safe, it's efficacious, and it can be first-line treatment for patients as well. Of course, now we have the many other innovations like MIG surgeries or minimally-invasive bleb surgeries, as well as the medications that I mentioned before that I'm very excited about, things that can be implanted or injected. But I think laser trabeculoplasty definitely ranks amongst ones of the top, one of the top innovations in the past 50 years.