Week in review: AI-based care, eye education, Stargardt star

A weekly roundup of ophthalmic news from around the web.

The FDA has joined 2 collaborative communities as part of an effort to tackle medical device challenges. The Ophthalmic Imaging collaborative community aims to identify challenges, best practices, strategies and standards while advancing ophthalmic imaging-related innovation. The second community—the National Evaluation System for Health Technology Coordinating Center collaborative community (NESTcc)—plans to link and synthesize data from sources such as clinical registries, EHRs and claims data to improve the quality of real-world evidence. FDA, Mass Device

Former U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, invites clinicians to join a new educational initiative striving to mitigate progression of diabetic eye disease. Jointly developed by the NEI, Prova Education and the National Eye Health Program, the online curriculum is intended for all clinicians with specific components for ophthalmology, optometry and primary care. Topics include improving the identification of patients with moderate-to-severe diabetic retinopathy and macular edema, refining referral rates to specialized care and matching patients to the most appropriate therapy. PRWeb

Aldeyra Therapeutics’ proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) prevention drug won the FDA’s fast-track designation, according the company’s press release. Thus far, the intravitreal formula of methotrexate appears promising for reducing retinal scarring by limiting aberrant retinal cell proliferation and activity. Already designated as an orphan drug, ADX-2191 is on track to enter a phase 3 trial that will assess its ability to prevent PVR-related retinal detachment. Aldeyra

The hit show This Is Us introduced Blake Stadnik—a theatre actor with Stargardt disease—as a new character in its season 4 premiere. His debut on the NBC series marks the first time a legally blind actor has played a major role on a network show. The show’s creator Dan Fogelman described the long process involved in finding the right actor for the part. "One of the wonderful things about our casting department was it wasn’t like they only found Blake,” explained Fogelman. “There were a bunch of really viable, wonderful casting choices that came through our casting department. Blake, when he came to us, was clearly the guy." Entertainment Tonight, LA Times

Predicting the rate of diabetic retinopathy progression may soon be possible with Roche’s AI technology. New findings published in Nature Digital Medicine suggest the company’s deep learning algorithm can predict disease progression using color fundus photographs collected during a single visit. This algorithm could help physicians tailor each patient’s treatment based on their risk of progression, and may lead to therapies for patients with mild and moderate disease. Biospace, Nature Digital Medicine