Welcome to mivision’s 2024 glaucoma issue.

Firstly, I’d like to thank our authors for their generous contributions. The depth and diversity of articles in this issue demonstrates why Australia and New Zealand are considered centres of excellence in glaucoma identification, patient management, medical research, and technical innovation.

One of the articles I’m most excited about is from leading health economics firm Evaluate. Last year Glaucoma Australia engaged Evaluate to identify the total cost of glaucoma to the Australian economy, and to model potential savings if more glaucoma patients were enrolled in our successful Sightwise patient support program. Suffice to say, Sightwise patients save more sight, are more rewarding for their treating clinicians, and cost the health system (and the economy more broadly) far less.

Another article that deserves special recognition is by Dr Jessica Tang and Dr Katherine Masselos regarding the value of collaborative glaucoma care. When ophthalmology and optometry work together to identify and manage disease, we improve treatment outcomes and reduce costs for patients, many of whom have been struggling to make ends meet due to cost-of-living pressures.

I’d also like to commend Specsavers for its contribution to a peer reviewed article that confirms the value of incorporating optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a routine clinical tool. By using OCT, Specsavers practices have detected glaucoma in more than 200,000 patients since 2015. An incredible number.

Other state of the art technologies making a massive difference to disease identification and ongoing patient management include home tonometry, and a visual field-testing system that can be delivered via any computer, tablet, or laptop. Then there’s Dr Brian Ang, whose promising evidence-based nutritional supplement could complement mainstream glaucoma therapies.

It’s exciting to see that we are making progress in so many areas, however there is still much to do. As we enter Glaucoma Australia’s 36th year of existence, compliance with prescribed medications, for example, remains a stubborn problem.

So, the job is absolutely not done – we must work together to encourage compliance in existing patients and to identify the 150,000–200,000 missing Australians who are progressively losing their vision to glaucoma, without even knowing they have the disease.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership with Glaucoma Australia.

Richard Wylie – Chief Executive Officer
Glaucoma Australia