FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Despite efforts to promote more diverse patient populations, racial minority patient groups are underrepresented in diabetic macular edema trials, according to a study. In a presentation at the Retina World Congress, Jay Chhablani, MD, said The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 mandated the inclusion of racial minority groups and women in clinical trials. However, only a small amount of trials have enrolled a sufficient amount of patients from minority groups or reported outcomes by race. “Nonwhite racial and ethnic subgroups are frequently underrepresented in ..read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In this Healio Video Perspective from the Retina World Congress, Pravin U. Dugel, MD, of Ocular Therapeutix, overviews clinical results for Axpaxli, an axitinib implant for wet age-related macular degeneration. Dugel discussed promising data across three clinical trials. “We have already randomized for the SOL-1 study, which is a pivotal phase 3 study, and we’re very excited to report further results in the near-term,” Dugel said ..read more

Rural unincorporated colonias in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands have limited access to health care, showing that geography is a determinant of health in low-income communities, according to a study published in Social Science & Medicine. “We found that the community was most concerned about the health and well-being of children, with asthma being one of the primary concerns,” Ann Cheney, PhD, an associate professor of social medicine, population and public health at University of California, Riverside, and one of the authors of the study, told Healio. The study included interviews ..read more

Endoscopists are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollutants when performing smoke-producing gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures — “comparable to smoking a cigarette” during a single procedure, according to researchers. “Recent developments in endoscopy have resulted in new tools and techniques becoming available across the field,” Christopher C. Thompson, MD, principal study investigator and director of endoscopy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said during the Digestive Disease Week media briefing. “We are now performing more procedures that ..read more

Initiating infantile hemangioma treatment with propranolol 2 mg/kg per day did not yield more adverse events than 1 mg/kg per day, according to a study. “Infantile hemangiomas are common vascular tumors in infants and children that pose the risk of serious complications such as ulceration, anatomic distortion and obstruction of vision and airway,” Charles Y. Huang, BS, medical student at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, and colleagues wrote. “Oral beta-blocker formulations, primarily propranolol, are widely utilized for the treatment of infantile ..read more

The prevalence of ocular comorbidities among hearing-impaired children was significant and associated with male sex and type of hearing impairment, according to research conducted in Malawi and published in Clinical Optometry. “Visual and hearing senses combined account for 95% information acquisition,” Tambuzai Liyo, from Mzuzu University in Malawi, and colleagues wrote. “Hence, deaf children rely on their sense of vision to interact with the world. Individuals with [hearing impairment (HI)] use vision to compensate for auditory information, and hearing impairment can ..read more

DESTIN, Fla. — The course of difficult-to-treat psoriatic arthritis can be significantly impacted by a host of factors beyond choice of therapy, according to data presented at the Congress of Clinical Rheumatology East annual meeting. “What we do in the clinic is a tiny sliver of what actually influences the patient’s outcome,” Alexis Ogdie-Beatty, MD, MSCE, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, told attendees. “It’s not all about the therapies or the biology — there’s also this concept of wellness ..read more

A $22 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute will support a study comparing the effectiveness of two strategies for asthma treatment. “The goal here is to really be able to help clinicians and patients make informed decisions about varying kinds of therapy for their asthma,” principal investigator Elliot Israel, MD, Gloria M. and Anthony C. Simboli Distinguished Chair in Asthma Research at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital and Pprofessor of Mmedicine at Harvard Medical School, told Healio. Improving the Quality of Care for Asthma Patients at Risk of ..read more

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In this Healio Video Perspective from the Retina World Congress, Ash Attia, PhD, of Bionic Vision Technologies discusses a novel suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis for retinitis pigmentosa. The Bionic Eye System is designed to stimulate the optic nerve and restore functional vision through an implanted stimulator that connects to a handheld unit and custom spectacles that transmit images of the environment. The company is developing the third generation of the software with AI, which will enter a worldwide pivotal trial. “We are very fortunate to have received ..read more

TORONTO — Trust in vaccines declined among parents and teenagers over a period of time that included the COVID-19 pandemic, according to survey results presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting. The survey was conducted by Unity Consortium, a group focused on overcoming barriers to vaccination that originally surveyed teens and parents in 2016 and then again during the COVID-19 pandemic about vaccine knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. “We noticed through our clinical work that the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to shift patients’ attitudes and approaches to all ..read more