Happy New Year – and what a year last year was! Let’s forget all about the politics and populism, and focus on some of the ground-breaking stories that we were honored to report in The Ophthalmologist in 2016. Looking back, there’s a common thread that links our most popular feature articles of the last 12 months: the future. I’m repeatedly told that people read The Ophthalmologist to find out what’s next, and I’ve picked three articles that I believe showcased precisely that.
The first… was a world first. Robert MacLaren performing the first-ever robotic assisted surgery in the human eye – and we were in the operating theater to witness, record and report it (1). The interviews with the key players spoke to how robotic assistants will not only extend the capabilities of the surgeon far beyond what’s possible now, but also their useful working life. The wonderful thing is that this is no longer the realm of the distant future; we’re at the first-adopter stage. Whether you’re ready or not, it’s highly likely that surgical robots will be coming to an operating theater near you – soon.
The second was Pearse Keane and Alex Walsh explaining how they’re going to revolutionize the eye exam (2). They’re building – in the form of a pair of binoculars – binocular OCT. But it’s more than just OCT; this display-toting, internet-connected pair of bins (plus its extensive cloud infrastructure) will enable visual field and acuity testing, amblyopia detection and much more – and the aim is to make the technology affordable so that patients can feasibly take one home too. Imagine what this could do; as well as the huge potential for disease screening and detection, this device could reduce the strain on healthcare resources. I find when something is described as a “paradigm shift,” it’s usually cliché. I don’t believe that for a moment here.
My final pick of the year was Alex Huang’s exposition on aqueous angiography (3). MIGS devices have transformed what’s possible in the gap between eyedrops and filtration surgery, but many are inserted “blind” to where the patients’ point of optimal aqueous outflow actually is. Alex has taken an innovative approach to map those outflow pathways in vivo by OCT – and it looks set to transform the efficacy of those MIGS devices that exploit the outflow pathways. In short, this could allow true customization of each procedure.
These are just three of the great stories that we have been privileged to cover this year, but 2016 has been full of, what I believe will be, practice-changing developments. I cannot wait to see what 2017 might bring. Here’s to the future and a fantastic new year in ophthalmology!
Mark Hillen
Editor
- M Hillen, “Forging Iron Man”, The Ophthalmologist, 34, 18–29 (2016). Available at: bit.ly/RobMacLaren.
- P Keane, A Walsh, “The eye exam’s quantum leap”, The Ophthalmologist, 26, 20–27, (2016). Available at: bit.ly/eyequantum.
- A Huang, “Individualized and inspiring”, The Ophthalmologist, 30, 20–27 (2016). Available at: bit.ly/alexhuang.
I spent seven years as a medical writer, writing primary and review manuscripts, congress presentations and marketing materials for numerous – and mostly German – pharmaceutical companies. Prior to my adventures in medical communications, I was a Wellcome Trust PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.
