Q&A: Anat Loewenstein, MD, and results of a consensus group on managing diabetic retinopathy

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Clinicians from around the world have convened in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). One of those experts is Anat Loewenstein, MD. Prof Loewenstein is director of the division of ophthalmology at Tel Aviv Medical Center in Israel. She is also a Modern Retina editorial advisory board member.

In a conversation with the Eye Care Network, Prof Loewenstein described her presentation, results from a Delphi consensus on the management of diabetic retinopathy.

Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ophthalmology Times: Can you share what you are presenting here at the ARVO 2025 meeting?

Prof Anat Loewenstein: I'm thrilled to be here at the ARVO 2025 here in Salt Lake City. I'm very happy to present here, in this meeting, our results on the Delphi consensus for the management of diabetic retinopathy.

OT: For those who are unfamiliar, who makes up the Delphi consensus group?

Loewenstein: The Delphi consensus includes a group of 5 retina specialists and another group of many healthcare practitioners, including more retina specialists, who have been posed a series of questions in 3 surveys, trying to really understand what are the main unmet needs in the management of diabetic patients today, when we have so many treatments at our momentarium.

OT: What areas did the group reach consensus on?

Loewenstein: This Delphi group has been given 3 surveys and then participated in consensus meetings. There were a few topics that achieved consensus. Some very important consensus was met on the unmet needs of patients, needs that caused the patients to have a high treatment burden and lack of final good visual acuity. One topic that achieved high consensus was the lack of possibility of very early intervention and noninvasive therapy. Of course, this is so important for the patients to be able to get treated earlier and not need invasive therapy. Another unmet need was the issue of frequent therapies. So needless to say, the need to find treatment of long duration, treatment that inhibits the patients from the need to come very often for treatment would be very important for our patients. Another unmet need was considered the lack of addressing additional pathological and paramechanistic paths, for example, anti-inflammatory and others. The thought behind this is showing that maybe diabetic macula edema needs to be treated in more than just combating one pathway because of its multi-factorial origin, a fact that might bring along better visual acuity outcome, maybe with decreased burden for our patients.