Although millions of Americans benefit from vision research yearly, the spotlight this month is on the urgent need for future studies to prevent many eye diseases that have no effective treatment or cure. Chris Johnson, PhD, director of the Visual Field Reading Center at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, talks about vision research:
What dictates or determines what eye disease will be funded for research?
There are many factors involved in determining funding for eye research:
- Health care impact and the influence that can have on providing health care to many individuals.
- The commonness or frequency of an eye disease within the general population
- How different eye diseases and the progression of an eye disease affects a person’s ability to get around in the environment in terms of disability, their quality of life, their activities of daily living and how this impacts their livelihood
- Effectiveness of various treatment options is also an important determinant of funding priorities
I understand your research interest is in testing related to glaucoma and retinal diseases. Can you tell us more about that research?
The major emphasis is the development of new diagnostic procedures that can provide the earliest detection of eye disease, and also the progression and rate of progression of an eye disease. So this is something of importance.
Also, examining the relationship between damage to structures of the eye and its consequences for visual function—your ability to function visually—and its relationship in eye disease is another important area. Multi-center trials and the use of a reading center for interpreting and properly categorizing and evaluating peripheral vision, in particular, visual fields, is another area. A very important area is screening for glaucoma and other eye diseases. In glaucoma, more than half of the people in the United States who have glaucoma are unaware of it, and this is why a screening program is quite important.
Currently, how many people are affected with glaucoma and retinal disease?
In the world, it is estimated that there are 66 million people who have glaucoma and this results in a cost annually of about $1.5 billion in terms of the treatment for these individuals. For retinal diseases, it is also approximately 60 million people in the world that have retinal disease and the costs are equal or even maybe a little higher for this.
How do patients or volunteers become involved in your research?
We always are recruiting normal volunteers of many ages mainly through the hospital and through communities by advertisement and evaluation of individuals in that fashion. We also seek groups who have access to people concerned about health care, and particularly in the older age group where this is a very important thing. Eye diseases are much more prevalent in the aging population than in younger populations. We also find suitable candidates willing to participate in our patients most of whom go through our clinics here in the ophthalmology department .
How much extra time and/or clinic visits would research volunteers give to be part of a research study?
That depends on the particular study. In some instances it requires only 30 to 60 minutes and one visit to participate in a study of this nature. However, I have also been involved in longitudinal studies where we follow people over time, and requires between eight and nine hours a year for 10 or more years. So it can vary quite a bit—it depends on the specific issue that is being addressed.
How important is research done right here in Iowa with reference to eye disease throughout the country and even the world?
It’s very important here at Iowa. I think this is a unique environment because it has some world-class scientists and physicians dealing with many different aspects of eye disease. In several instances it is the leading area of research in the world for some of these areas. All the investigators and physicians here are very cooperative and love to collaborate—and I think this is a very healthy, important method of dealing with eye disease.
What are the next steps with regard to your research on glaucoma and retinal diseases?
For me, the next steps in research are to improve the testing procedures and to provide more accurate and precise measures; also, ones that can reduce the burden on the patient and reduce the time.
Analysis of results and proper interpretation is another important area and, also, being able to look at variations with different ethnic groups. There are differences in both the structure and the functions of eyes and the brain for different ethnic groups, and these need to be better characterized. And finally, developing new methods of non-invasively assessing visual function by using non-invasive procedures, and I think this will help enhance things as well. |
