Eyeworld

EW CORNEA 100 September 2017 Closer continued from page 98 HOW DOES YOUR EMR COMPARE? According to the 2015 ASOA EHR Satisfaction Survey Results* • EYEMD EMR HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS SCORED HIGHER ON OVERALL SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY THAN ANY OTHER VENDOR! • USERS EXPERIENCE LESS HIDDEN COSTS WITH EYEMD EMR THAN ANY OTHER VENDOR! • USERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO RECOMMEND EYEMD EMR OVER ANY OTHER VENDOR! EyeMD EMR is the complete solution designed specifically for ophthalmologists. It has all the features and functionality you need, and it includes built-in DICOM imaging, diagnostic machine integrations, server monitoring, and no-cost, seamless integration with more than 80 practice management systems. All with no hidden costs! Call 1-877-2-EYE-EMR to schedule your free demo today! OR VISIT EYEMDEMR.COM/COMPARE TODAY TO SEE HOW YOUR EMR COMPARES TO EYEMD EMR! www.EyeMDEMR.com | (877) 2 EYE EMR O N E O F T H E F A S TEST G R O W I N G P R I V A T E C O M P A N I E S I N T H E U SA TH R E E Y E A R S I N A R O W ! 2015 ASOA EHR Satisfaction Survey Results* 1. EyeMD EMR scored higher on Overall System Functionality than any other vendor. 2. EyeMD EMR users report experiencing less hidden costs than any other vendor. 3. Users are more likely to recommend EyeMD EMR than any other vendor. *Based on recent customer satisfaction survey conducted on behalf of the ASOA. ASOA survey results represent opinion only, and are not in any way intended for use as a ranking tool. WE ARE THE IN EMR FOR OPHTHALMOLOGY! *Based on Unprecedented user satisfaction reported on EHR Satisfaction Surveys conducted by AAO™ & ASCRS/ASOA IRREFUTABLE LEADER Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Mary- land School of Medicine, Baltimore. "Specifically for dry eyes, which is a tough entity to generalize, there are subclasses of patients for whom serum works better than in others," he said. Dr. Jeng thinks the study's findings may be surprising to some ophthalmologists. "They've heard that serum is like a magic bullet and solves everyone's problems. It's not a magic bullet," he said. "It works great for some people … it just doesn't work for everyone." Inna Ozerov, MD, Miami Eye Institute, Hollywood, Florida, also found that the results confirmed what she has experienced. "My patients who are using autologous serum tears are marginally benefit- ing from its use," she said. "Frankly, I was hoping for a more positive outcome to justify the cost of this treatment. Patients experience ex- orbitant cost since this treatment is not covered by insurance." Because of these still unclear results, corneal specialists would like to see more well-designed and large randomized, controlled trials that can pinpoint which subtypes of disease would benefit the most from autologous serum tears, Dr. Galor said. A focus on patients who would benefit the most from autologous serum tears would be helpful, Dr. Jeng agreed. He has seen recent research that found that patients with dry eyes from primary Sjögren's syndrome responded much better to serum therapy than those with secondary Sjögren's, and he would like to see more studies similar to that. At his own institution, research on serum therapy for dry eyes for ocular graft versus host disease is underway, as is a study on different serum concentrations. Other areas to be explored in future serum tears research should include objective biomarkers such as tear osmolarity, tear cytokines, and HLA-DR expression by ocular sur- face cells, Dr. Akpek and coauthors wrote. Cost comparisons would also be helpful, they added. There should be more research on streamlining the process of how to obtain serum, Dr. Ozerov said. "Variability in storage and transport may play a role in its efficacy," she said. This is also important because of the high cost patients pay to use serum tears. Although there may be questionable benefit, some of her patients have used tears for longer than a year due to the failure of any other treatments. Dr. Rapuano had a similar ex- perience when Wills was no longer to obtain serum tears from Leiter's Pharmacy (San Jose, California) and had to switch to regional labs who would produce it. "When Leiter's stopped, some patients were irate. It's difficult to get insurance cover- age for the tears, but some people are miserable and really benefit. Twenty-five to fifty percent of people I've tried it in seem to find it helpful," he said. EW Reference 1. Pan Q, et al. Autologous serum eye drops for dry eye. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Feb 28;2:CD009327. Editors' note: The physicians have no financial interests related to their comments. Contact information Akpek: esakpek@jhmi.edu Galor: agalor@med.miami.edu Jeng: bjeng@som.umaryland.edu Ozerov: iozerov@gmail.com Rapuano: cjrapuano@willseye.org

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