Subspecialties Health Economics and Policy, Basic & Translational Research, Business and Innovation, COVID-19

COVID-19: Protect, Research, Treat

A round-up of novel coronavirus-related stories

Aleksandra Jones | 03/20/2020 | Quick Read

The AAO has published guidelines for ophthalmologists amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which include methods of identifying patients who have potentially been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and recommended protocols when seeing patients (1).
A study of 30 patients diagnosed with novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCD), conducted by Zhejiang University in China, was designed to check whether tears and conjunctival secretions carried the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It showed that only the tears of one patient with conjunctivitis tested positive for the virus, 58 other patients’ samples were negative (2).
A review of papers presenting cases of ocular infection with known coronaviruses (CoVs) has shown that CoVs can produce various ocular symptoms, both in the anterior segment – such as conjunctivitis or anterior uveitis – and at the back of the eye – retinitis and optic neuritis (3).
To help clinicians deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, Modernizing Medicine has announced that its telemedicine platform – modmed Telehealth – will be available free of charge to all users of the company’s HER system, EMA (4).
Notal Vision proposes physicians use its remote monitoring program, ForeseeHome, to monitor elderly AMD patients at risk of catching COVID-19. The program alerts practices when patients convert from dry to wet AMD, reducing the need for in-person appointments and public exposure to the virus (5).
The American Journal of Ophthalmology has published an In Memoriam article for Li Wenliang, the Chinese ophthalmologist who died on February 7, 2020, after reportedly contracting COVID-19 from an asymptomatic glaucoma patient he treated. The piece emphasizes the validity of Wenliang’s early clinical reports of a novel virus (6).

Subspecialties Health Economics and Policy, Basic & Translational Research, Business and Innovation, COVID-19

AAO (2020). Available at: bit.ly/2Ui0eEK.
J Xia et al., J Med Virol (2020). PMID: 32100876.
I Seah, R Agrawal, Ocul Immunol Inflamm, 16, 1 (2020). PMID: 32175797.
Modernizing Medicine (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/33psgSV.
ForeseeHome (2020). Available at: bit.ly/3d9btYS.
RK Parrish 2nd et al., Am J Ophthalmol (2020). PMID: 32169251.

Aleksandra Jones

Editor of The Ophthalmologist

Having edited several technical publications over the last decade, I crossed paths with quite a few of Texere's current team members, and I only ever heard them sing the company's praises. When an opportunity arose to join Texere, I jumped at the chance! With a background in literature, I love the company's ethos of producing genuinely engaging content, and the fact that it is so well received by our readers makes it even more rewarding.