The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (Eye and Ear) has partnered with the World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH) to produce a new animated video on applying eye drops.
They hope the new instructional video conveys this year’s World Sight Day theme, Love Your Eyes, to patients living with eye disease.
Co-funded by WAEH and the Nelken Trust, the video forms a patient eye drop education package to be used globally to teach a standardised technique for clinicians and patients – with the aim to improve compliance and health literacy.
Chair of the WAEH executive board Ms Cathy Kowalewski is encouraging all eye health professionals to share it with their patients.
“WAEH is proud to have developed a practical, patient-centred resource that will benefit the eye healthcare of patients globally. It has specifically been animated to allow for translation into any language,” she said.
For Melbourne patient Ms Tu Nguyen, eye drops were the difference between keeping her vision or a rapid deterioration.
Nguyen experienced blurred vision and a throbbing pain in her eye in the months following the birth of her first child. At 32, she was diagnosed with glaucoma.
Nguyen said the pain in her eye was too debilitating to ignore.
“For the first two years I lived in fear that I would never see my daughter’s face again,” she said.
She was prescribed eye drops to help reduce intraocular pressure.
Nguyen was desperate to do whatever she could to maintain her sight and was meticulous about applying her eye drops properly.
Since her glaucoma diagnosis, Nguyen has been a patient at the Eye and Ear for more than five years and lived with glaucoma for more than a decade.
Despite being very compliant with her treatment, it has been an ongoing battle to manage and stabilise her condition.
Unfortunately, she has an aggressive form of glaucoma. She has had 11 surgeries and laser treatments, losing nearly 90% of her vision in her early 30’s.
Dr Alp Atik, glaucoma specialist at the Eye and Ear, said although glaucoma is the world’s leading cause of irreversible blindness, it can be successfully treated with eye drops alone.
“Many patients put their vision at risk by either not taking their eye drops regularly or not applying them properly. Compliance with glaucoma medications is as low as 21% according to some studies. Teaching a standardised technique is key to avoid unnecessary surgeries and making sure the drops are administered correctly,” he said.
Hospital data shows a 29% increase of surgical patients with glaucoma in the past 20 years.
The last resort for Nguyen was a procedure to insert a tube into her eye to reduce and stabilise the pressure. Since this surgery, her visits to the hospital have reduced from fortnightly to every 6-8 weeks.
She feels she has benefitted from the collaboration of a large team of eye specialists, the wealth of knowledge, experience and different perspective.
“The surgeries have helped to prolong my vision, but eventually I will go blind. I feel safe in the hands at the Eye and Ear and know they are doing everything that can be done,” Nguyen said.
The prevalence of glaucoma in Australia is expected to increase to 379,000 in 2025 (from 208,000 in 2005) because of the ageing population. Health system costs over the same period are estimated to increase from $AU355 million to $AU784 million.
“Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness, we have to do what we can to ensure patients are using eye drops correctly to preserve their vision for longer,” Atik said.
The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital led the project in collaboration with the Wilmer Eye Center, John Hopkins, Baltimore USA; Moorfield’s Eye Hospital, NHS Foundation, London UK; Rotterdam Eye Hospital, Netherlands; Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami, USA; Aravind Eye Care, India and Singapore National Eye Centre, Singapore.
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