Envision Summit 2025: Patient-centered care and newest treatment strategies in neovascular AMD and DME

At the Envision Summit 2025 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sherrol Reynolds, OD, FAAO, participated in a discussion on patient-centered care and the newest treatment strategies in neovascular AMD and DME.

Video Transcript:

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

Sherrol Reynolds, OD, FAAO:

My name is Dr Sherrol Reynolds, and I am a professor of optometry at Nova Southeastern University, College of Optometry in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And it's indeed a pleasure to be here. This is my second Envision Summit, and I think what sets this conference apart from some of the others is that optometry and ophthalmology come together to educate, to inform, and to highlight the latest development in eye care.

And as a person who is in retina and director of our retina service, it was a great opportunity for me to be part of a panel discussion yesterday with noted retinal specialists from Baskin Palmer and other areas, and we talked about patient centered care and the newest treatment strategies in neovascular AMD as well as diabetic macula edema. And what was important to highlight is how we both as retinal specialists on their side and optometrists, can educate our patients about the latest treatment options that are available to these patient. Extended treatment so they don't have to get injections every month. What's new in the pipeline and development of treating patients with neovascular AMD and diabetic maculapathy. So it's exciting times in retina and again, today, we had another opportunity to partner with a retina specialist and my optometric colleagues and further discussion about other conditions that can mimic AMD and how we can differentiate those conditions. What are the latest treatment modalities for these conditions, such as Macular telangiectasia, type two and type one. You know, patients that have polypoidal, choroidal vasculopathy, central serous chorioretinopathy. What's new in the pachychoroid spectrum of diseases.

So in conclusion, you know, emerging therapies, things in retina. Retina is a hot topic. We're seeing new treatment for patients that have geographic atrophy–giving those patients hope. We're seeing treatment modalities where the patients can have an extended treatment. They don't have to get treatment every month, and we're just excited about what's coming down the pipeline.

I think comanagement and collaboration and working together is so critically important. Our patients, especially those that have diabetic retinopathy, diabetic maculopathy and age-related macular degeneration, usually, optometry is that first line, you know, their first entry into eye care. We're seeing a disproportionate number of these patients, so it's important, when these patients have conditions that's vision threatening that not only are we talking about their condition with them, educating them on their condition, but as we're referring them to our colleagues, our retinal specialist, we also want to make sure that they're aware of what the latest treatment option is. A lot of times, our colleagues may have a busy practice, and so these patients go in and, you know, they don't have time to ask their questions. So we, as optometrists, we serve an important role in just getting our patients, not only their diagnosis detected early, but educating them, and then getting them to our colleagues.

Additionally, a lot of times, our patients will come back and may not feel comfortable or have some fears about treatment and may not go back to the retinal specialist. It's important that we again educate our patient and work together well, because the goal is to preserve our patient's sight. So I think it's so important that we work together in doing that.