THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVANCES FOR OCT IN OPHTHALMOLOGY WOULD BE TO THAT IT ACTUALLY LEADS TO VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS BEYOND CONVENTION APPROACHES, WHICH HAS NOT BEEN DONE.  One statement that is on the OCT WIKIPEDIA page at the time of this posting. “It has greatly improved the management of the top three causes of blindness – macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma – thereby preventing vision loss in many patients.”(unreferenced)  I am unaware of any study, and have asked experts in this field, that shows expensive OCT improves visual acuity over conventional approaches. I hadn’t paid much attention to the ophthalmology literature until January 2023, when I was asked to be part of something that combined OCT in ophthalmology with OCT in other fields, particularly cardiology. I was shocked at the lack of morbidity data (visual acuity improvement). Now looking at studies like China’s Dragon study, if it does have an advantage over conventional techniques it will likely be small and the cost can not be justified. The only areas where I know OCT effects morbidity and/or mortality are cardiology and cervical cancer.   This is not to diminished the work of Fujimoto and Swanson, who won the 2023 Lasker Award. They pioneered eye OCT. Bell convinced people about many things, even if prior art existed.  Osler said, (paraphrase), it is not who comes up with the idea but those who convince the world. Between 1986 and 1995, they rapidly advanced eye OCT to a clinical device which was a great achievement. 

Back to Home Page