Noelle Lake, MD

Peer-reviewed analysis of intraocular pressure (IOP) response after treatment with dexamethasone intraocular suspension 9% vs placebo (vehicle) injection or topical prednisolone acetate 1% and and identification of factors associated with increased IOP after cataract surgery.

The challenge of developing a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus for widespread distribution in a fraction of the time typically required is completely unprecedented and logistically daunting. Pharmaceutical companies are stepping up their game — weeding out inefficiencies, doubling laboratory shifts, and reshuffling development stages or even running some processes in parallel.

In the following pages, we review our current under- standing of dry eye disease (DED), including its relationship to Sjögren’s disease. We discuss the methods available to di- agnose DED and some of the diagnostic challenges that eyecare practitioners face. Because Sjögren’s disease repre- sents a significant but often overlooked subset of DED patients, we offer a protocol for selecting those who should be identified for additional testing as potential Sjögren’s disease patients. Finally, we offer an approach to management of Sjögren’s disease patients and describe resources available to them.

The trend in fluoroquinolone development toward better gram-positive coverage makes later generations particularly valuable for empiric treatment of ocular surface infections. But should the next “generation” be a new mode of delivery rather than a molecular refinement?

An IOP target is an educated guess; and no single target is meaningful for every patient. How do we customize our treatment plans, and how do we approach “outlier” patients for whom 25% IOP reduction is not the goal?

Knowing the cause of an infection greatly improves the chance of treating it properly. As the first point of contact, clinicians have a variety of tools available to identify ocular pathogens, including tapping the expertise of their microbiology laboratory colleagues.

The climate around lifestyle- mediated and non-pharmaceutical approaches to care has changed dramatically in recent years. a number of ideas from outside mainstream medicine can, perhaps, be fruitfully employed to treat glaucoma.

By supporting and enabling individuals in making major lifestyle changes for the improvement of their health, Integrative Health Coaching (IHC) carries the potential to reduce rates and morbidity of chronic disease and impact myriad aspects of healthcare and is aligned well with the tenets and goals of recently sanctioned federal healthcare reform. Full text available on Pubmed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3833534/

Diets high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and fish—and rich in antioxidant vitamins, carotenoids, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and other nutrients—have been associated with reduced rates of cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease, cancer, AMD, and cataracts. Micronutrients may synergistically protect cells against damage from oxidative stress and inflammation. In the field of ophthalmology, observational studies have shown that individuals who report diets rich in certain nutrients experience lower rates of cataracts and AMD across a range of populations.

IOP-sensing contact lenses represent a tectonic shift in the evolution of IOP monitoring and glaucoma management. Where once there was a snapshot, or a series of snapshots, now there is a feature-length movie.