Eye-to-Eye: An inDepth on Vision Loss and Healthcare Utilizations; And A Novel Intervention for Vision Loss

08/03/22 • 24 min

Welcome to this episode of Physician’s Weekly podcast. I am your host, Dr. Rachel Giles, from Medicom Medical Publishers, in collaboration with Physician’s Weekly.

Earlier this week I was listening to National Public Radio’s This American Life podcast, which featured blind comedian Darryl Lenox, who talked about how his trust in strangers dramatically shifted after he lost his sight. It got me thinking about how being visually impaired is truly an obstacle to care in some circumstances and brought me to the idea of this inDEPTH episode.

Today’s episode features two interviews. We start off by exploring the association of vision loss on health care utilization, functional implications of vision loss, ethical and communication issues in patient-centered care delivery, patient engagement, and adherence. In our second interview, we go for a more optimistic ending, in which Physician’s Weekly’s Chris Cole interviews Dr. Andrea Lora Kossler, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the Byers Eye Institute Stanford University School of Medicine, in California, about her study published this month Aug 2022, about teprotumumab in retaining functional vision.

But first I interview Professor Alan R. Morse from the Department of Ophthalmology, Columbia University.

Enjoy listening!

Additional reading

Morse AR, Seiple W, Talwar N, Lee PP, Stein JD. Association of Vision Loss With Hospital Use and Costs Among Older Adults. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2019 Jun 1;137(6):634-640.

GBD 2019 Blindness and Vision Impairment Collaborators; Vision Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease Study. Causes of blindness and vision impairment in 2020 and trends over 30 years, and prevalence of avoidable blindness in relation to VISION 2020: the Right to Sight: an analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet Glob Health. 2021 Feb;9(2):e144-e160.

Ugradar S, Kang J, Kossler AL, Zimmerman E, Braun J, Harrison AR, Bose S, Cockerham K, Douglas RS. Teprotumumab for the treatment of chronic thyroid eye disease. Eye (Lond). 2022 Aug;36(8):1553-1559

Lu TJ, Amarikwa L, Sears CM, Kossler AL. Advances in the Treatment of Thyroid Eye Disease Associated Extraocular Muscle Myopathy and Optic Neuropathy. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2022 Jun;22(6):313-325.

Let us know what you thought of this week’s episode on Twitter: @physicianswkly

Want to share your medical expertise, research, or unique experience in medicine on the PW podcast? Email us at [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!

Welcome to this episode of Physician’s Weekly podcast. I am your host, Dr. Rachel Giles, from Medicom Medical Publishers, in collaboration with Physician’s Weekly.

But first I interview Professor Alan R. Morse from the Department of Ophthalmology, Columbia University.

Enjoy listening!

Additional reading

Morse AR, Seiple W, Talwar N, Lee PP, Stein JD. Association of Vision Loss With Hospital Use and Costs Among Older Adults. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2019 Jun 1;137(6):634-640.

Ugradar S, Kang J, Kossler AL, Zimmerman E, Braun J, Harrison AR, Bose S, Cockerham K, Douglas RS. Teprotumumab for the treatment of chronic thyroid eye disease. Eye (Lond). 2022 Aug;36(8):1553-1559

Let us know what you thought of this week’s episode on Twitter: @physicianswkly

Want to share your medical expertise, research, or unique experience in medicine on the PW podcast? Email us at [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!

Previous Episode

Is COVID-19 Vaccination Safe For Patients With Dravet Syndrome?; And Captain-Of-The-Ship Doctrine

Welcome to this episode of Physician’s Weekly podcast. I am your host, Dr. Rachel Giles, from Medicom Medical Publishers, in collaboration with Physician’s Weekly.

Today’s episode features 2 interviews. In our second interview, Physician’s Weekly interviews our regular contributor, Dr. MedLaw, a certified radiologist and medicine malpractice lawyer. She talks about the “Captain-of-the-Ship Doctrine”, which is a principle that holds a surgeon liable for the actions of assistants who are under the surgeon's control but who are employees of the hospital, not the surgeon. The surgeon as "the captain of the ship," is directly responsible for an alleged error or act of alleged negligence because they control and direct the actions of those in assistance. But she gives some fascinating examples to explain this principle.

But first, Physician’s Weekly’s Julia Ernst interviews Dr. Danielle Andrade (Professor of Neurology, University of Toronto, Canada). Vaccination is a common seizure trigger in individuals with Dravet syndrome, which is a severe form of epilepsy characterized by frequent, prolonged seizures often triggered by hyperthermia, and often coupled with developmental delay, speech impairment, ataxia, hypotonia, sleep disturbances, and other health problems. Information surrounding COVID-19 vaccine side effects in patients with Dravet Syndrome would aid caregivers and providers in deciding on and managing COVID-19 vaccination. To that end, Dr. Andrade lead a recently published survey through the Dravet Syndrome Foundation's Family Network to find out whether patients or caregivers with Dravet Syndrome had significant problems if they had received a COVID-19 vaccination. Stay tuned to find out...

Enjoy listening!

Additional reading

Hood V, Berg AT, Knupp KG, Koh S, Laux L, Meskis MA, Zulfiqar-Ali Q, Perry MS, Scheffer IE, Sullivan J, Wirrell E, Andrade DM. COVID-19 vaccine in patients with Dravet syndrome: Observations and real-world experiences. Epilepsia. 2022 Jul;63(7):1778-1786. doi: 10.1111/epi.17250. Epub 2022 Apr 20. PMID: 35383912; PMCID: PMC9111612.

Let us know what you thought of this week’s episode on Twitter: @physicianswkly

Want to share your medical expertise, research, or unique experience in medicine on the PW podcast? Email us at [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!

Next Episode

Examining Results of TIF For GERD

Welcome to this episode of Physician’s Weekly Podcast. My name is Dr. Rachel Giles, from Medicom Medical Publishers, in collaboration with Physician’s Weekly. We have a fantastic interview for you; we speak with Dr. Raman Muthusamy from David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, about a surgery- and medicine-free approach to treat gastroesophageal reflux disorder (GERD), called transoral incisionless fundoplication (TIF), which can have durable results.

Let us know what you thought of this week’s episode on Twitter: @physicianswkly

Want to share your medical expertise, research, or unique experience in medicine on the PW podcast? Email us at [email protected]!

Thanks for listening!