ECHoES Trial Reveals Potential to Reduce nAMD workload in Hospitals

ECHoES Trial Reveals Potential to Reduce nAMD workload in Hospitals

The Effectiveness of Community vs Hospital Eye Service (ECHoES) for follow ups of dormant neovascular age-related macular degeneration reveals that community optometrists have the potential to reduce the workload of the hospital eye service in this highly populated area of secondary care. 

The virtual study by Reeves et al. showed that the decision making between experienced ophthalmologists and trained optometrists was very similar, although optometrists were more cautious in their decision making.  The number of sight-threatening mistakes were similar between both optometrists and ophthalmologists.

This study shows that there is a huge untapped potential for community optometrists to reduce the workload in the macular degeneration clinics and allow for the every increasing demand for such services. 

The full article can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Source: British Medical Journal Open

Reeves BC, Scott LJ, Taylor J, Harding SP, Peto T, Muldrew A, and Hogg RE et al. (2016). Effectiveness of Community versus Hospital Eye Service follow-up for patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration with quiescent disease (ECHoES): a virtual non-inferiority trial. British Medical Journal Open 6:e010685