The One Thing: What ophthalmologists aren’t talking about enough | Episode 1

Ophthalmology is moving quickly on several fronts, which can make it hard to see which issues are getting less attention than they deserve. At the 2026 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) annual meeting, the Eye Care Network put one question to numerous ophthalmologists: “What aren’t ophthalmologists talking about enough?” Three of their responses are featured in the first episode of The One Thing. They range from access to uveitis care, to the rigor of clinical research, to a new approach in glaucoma.

Access to uveitis care

Timothy M. Janetos, MD, of Northwestern University, pointed to access to care. Innovation in therapeutics has a lot on the horizon, he said, but all of those drugs and innovations can only be delivered by specialists, and right now few ophthalmologists go into uveitis. “I mean, there are multiple states in the United States that have zero specialists trained in uveitis,” Janetos said. “So I think access is a real problem for a lot of these patients.” He added that progress in treatment means little without the workforce to deliver it. “You can have a million wonder drugs and a million things that work, but if you don’t have people to take care of those patients or to prescribe them, then it becomes a real issue,” he said.

More rigor in comparing therapies

Donald J. D’Amico, MD, of Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, said the field is not talking enough about the need for careful comparative studies of the various therapies that clinicians espouse. “We really will advance as we become more rigorous in our trial design and in our comparisons,” he said, “rather than just publishing small series of what I did with seven patients or something like that.”

D’Amico said the field is embracing more rigor in its science. He noted that 25 years ago, ophthalmology was primarily a surgical field with no retinal pharmacology. “Now it’s here, and we’re learning very quickly,” he said, adding that the specialty is excited to be at the forefront of so many new areas.

Procedural pharmaceuticals in glaucoma

Mark J. Gallardo, MD, of El Paso Eye Surgeons, turned to glaucoma, saying procedural pharmaceuticals are not getting the attention they should. “It’s become standard for us to give drop after drop after drop,” he said. Selective laser trabeculoplasty has been incorporated a bit more into clinical practice, he noted. But with the new interventional mindset in glaucoma, he does not think enough doctors have implemented procedural pharmaceuticals.

Gallardo expects that to change. “I think that’s something that over time we’re gonna start to use more and more,” he said.

What the responses share

Taken together, these three responses describe a field that is advancing but still has gaps: in who can deliver care, in how therapies are compared, and in how treatments are administered. The One Thing is an editorially independent recurring series that asks ophthalmologists to name the issue they believe deserves more attention.