Iqbal Ike K. Ahmed

About Iqbal Ike K. Ahmed

What is the most exciting thing happening in glaucoma right now?

We are in the midst of the interventional glaucoma revolution — a disruptive change in proactive, early intervention utilizing improved predictive diagnostics and AI to customize novel interventions like lasers, procedural pharmaceuticals, and minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS)/minimally invasive bleb surgery (MIBS) devices. This has generated, as never before, tremendous investments in science, training, and attention to glaucoma to improve long-term patient outcomes. What is most exciting is witnessing the cultural change in the mindset of managing glaucoma. It’s rare and special to be in the middle of a massive paradigm shift in any field of medicine!

Make a bold prediction for the future of glaucoma treatment.

Like many other eye diseases, we will be able to detect glaucoma using smartphones and wearables just by the way a human interacts with and uses their devices. Access will be significantly improved and provide for earlier intervention to reduce the morbidity from glaucoma. This will allow for gene therapy, which is on the horizon, to be deployed to “normalize” ocular outflow at early stages of dysfunction, thereby preventing the cascade of further outflow and optic nerve disease progression.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Despite my optimism for and interest in interventional glaucoma, it is critical to learn and perform classical glaucoma procedures like trabeculectomy and bleb management as these are patients that are at greatest risk for blindness. Don’t get dazzled by all the glitz and hype, and do your own research, ground yourself in the evidence, and innovate for the right reasons.