Ocular Complications of Diabetes Mellitus and Laser, Surgery and Pharmacologic Treatment for Diabetic Retinopathy

Dr. James M. Maisel
Founder and Chairman
Retina Group of New York
USA

Abstract

Diabetic patients are subject to a plethora of problems involving almost all parts of the eye and visual system. Fortunately, we have a large body of evidence based treatments to successfully address almost every stage and type of diabetic eye disease with better outcomes than ever. In addition to faster and more accurate diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, we are not only able to prevent blindness in almost all patients with laser and vitreous microsurgery, but also often improve vision with newer FDA approved, and off label medications. Yet, diabetic ocular disease remains one of the leading causes of blindness in the US in the 18-64 age group.

Diabetic ocular problems may be asymptomatic but require treatment, or symptomatic, and not require treatment. Managing diabetic ocular problems spans a wide spectrum of variability. Patient management may be easy or difficult to diagnose and treat and responses are not always typical. Systemic factors, patient compliance and even complications of systemic medications may alter patient disease progression and response to treatment.

We are beginning to understand the multifactorial complexity of ocular diabetic disease. Untangling the intricacy of cases that do not respond well to evidence based established treatment still requires extensive experience, analysis of multifactorial considerations and expertise in medical, laser and surgical treatment. On occasion, we must resort to a systematic empirical and persistent process and use multiple therapies in concert. Until we unravel the individual genomic basis of disease and phenotypic expression, we must approach individuals with a full armamentarium of knowledge and tools to combat diabetic eye disease.

Additional presentation at the World Diabetes Congress
Dr. Maisel will also present “Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Identify and Manage Patient Populations at Risk for Diabetes and Diabetic Complications” at the 5th World Diabetes Conference in Prague. View the abstract at http://www.zydoc.com/using-nlp-to-identify-at-risk-diabetes-populations/.

Biography  

Dr. James M. Maisel, (Doctor of Medicine) is the Founder and Chairman of the Retina Group of New York, USA. He is a Board Certified ophthalmologist who completed his Dyson Fellowship in vitreous and retinal surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Residency in Ophthalmology at Nassau University Medical Center, Internship in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center, Doctor of Medicine at New York Medical College, B.A. with Honors Chemistry at Kenyon College.

He was honored as the 2017 Humanitarian of the Year by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He has served as a Corporate Advisory Board member for the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Medical Advisory Board.  He was also a member of the AAO Instrument and Device and Low Vision Committees and has received research grants from the U.S. Public Health Service and the National Institute of Health.  Dr. Maisel represented the National Society to Prevent Blindness at the ANSI Z-80 committee where he helped establish many ophthalmic industry standards.  He served as an editor of EyeCare Technology Magazine and Diabetes Technology Magazine, authored numerous professional journal articles, and lectures nationally on retina, medical informatics and practice management topics.  Dr. Maisel is also the Chairman of ZyDoc, a medical informatics and transcription company whose MediSapien software was ranked as one of the top five applications in The Data Design Diabetes Sanofi US Innovation Challenge.  In addition, he has been a clinical investigator, consultant, educator, and advisory board member for Pfizer, Novartis, EyeTech, TopCon, Genentech, Alimera, Regeneron and Allergan.