Masters of Philosophy student and Doctor of Optometry graduate, Sena Gocuk, has recently completed a project investigating the optometric care of people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Her project was co-supervised between the Anterior Eye, Clinical Trials and Research Translation Unit at the Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, and the CPU Lab. Please see below for a summary of her latest publication.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of vision impairment worldwide. Currently, there are no approved therapies for earlier stages of AMD. Treatments available for later stages of the disease may not reverse vision loss. The early identification and management of modifiable risk factors, may contribute to reducing patients’ risk of progression to sight-threatening late-stage AMD. Optometrists in Australia have a key role in providing primary eye care to people who are at risk of developing, or who have earlier stages of, AMD. They are therefore ideally placed to ask and counsel their patients about lifestyle modifications that can reduce the risk of disease progression.
There are currently no studies assessing the optometric clinical care provided to patients with AMD. Self-reported surveys provide some insight however, due to their self-reported nature, there are several potential biases associated. The Macular Degeneration Clinical Care Audit Tool (MaD-CCAT), was recently developed by A/Prof Laura Downie, designed to audit the optometric care provided to people with AMD, relative to current best-practice standards. In this study, Master of Philosophy student, Sena Ayse Gocuk (who worked with Laura and Allison McKendrick from the CPULab), investigated whether performing clinical audit and receiving analytical performance feedback provides insight into current optometric clinical care and altered documentation of the care provided by optometrists to people with, or at risk of, AMD.
In her recently published article in Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, Sena reports the findings of current optometric AMD care and improvements in clinical record documentation of key aspects of clinical care including AMD risk factors, clinical examination, AMD severity classification, and management advice.
Her findings support a role for audit, to improve optometric clinical care of AMD, as evidenced by improved documentation of the AMD care delivered.
A copy of this article can be found at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/opo.12754
Please contact us if you do not have institutional access to the paper.
Clinical Psychophysics Unit, Optometry & Vision Sciences, University of Melbourne 