Hoskins Center IRIS Registry Research Fund
As an ophthalmologist you are a scientist – you’re inquisitive and observant and enjoy testing your hypotheses.
Throughout your career you’ve had hunches and noticed suggestive patterns but didn’t have a practical way of following up on your perceptions.
What if you had the opportunity to pursue your idea with funding and a supportive team of data scientists who have access to millions of patient data points?
What question would you ask?
The H. Dunbar Hoskins Jr., MD, Center for Quality Eye Care IRIS® Registry Research Fund supports Academy members in private practice who want to use the Academy IRIS Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight) database to answer important clinical questions.
The goal of the fund is to give Academy members the opportunity to harness big data.
How it Works
The Hoskins Center IRIS Registry Research Fund will fund four or more IRIS Registry analytics projects in 2023, with more opportunities expected in the future.
Each award is $35,000.
- $5,000 goes to the investigating member.
- $30,000 goes to the Academy for expenses related to data access and analysis.
Awardees will also be supported for travel to the Academy office in San Francisco. During this visit, awardees will learn about the IRIS Registry database, receive an introduction to big data analytics and work closely with Academy staff on the analysis.
Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible for the grant, you must be:
- A member of the Academy
- In private practice
- A participant in the IRIS Registry or working towards participation
Application Process
Application Overview
- What is the question or hypothesis you would like to investigate?
- How do you think big data will help answer your question?
- What is the clinical significance of your idea?
- Why are you interested in big data?
- Do you have experience with big data and/or research?
- Do you have a specific timeline for analysis?
- What is your availability for participating in analysis?
- How does your idea support the Academy’s mission to protect sight and empower lives?
- Do you know which IRIS Registry data elements you would like to use? (A list of options is available.)
- Upload your CV or NIH-style biosketch
How to Apply
Evaluation Criteria
- Significance: Does the proposal address an important problem or critical barrier to progress in the field?
- Candidate: Does the member have high interest and adequate time to devote to the project?
- Innovation: Is this a unique question for the IRIS Registry?
- Approach: Is the proposal well thought out? Is the project feasible?
Timeline
- The IRIS Registry Analytics Committee will review applications and notify the selected award recipients during the fall.
2021 Winners of The H. Dunbar Hoskins Jr., MD, Center for Quality Eye Care IRIS® Registry Research Fund are:
- Murtaza Adam, MD, Colorado Retina Associates. Bimatoprost intracameral implant is the first dissolvable FDA-approved implant to reduce intraocular pressure. The guidelines for appropriate intracameral injection preparation are still evolving. To date, no studies have reported any cases of endophthalmitis with the bimatoprost intracameral implant. Dr. Adam will use the IRIS Registry dataset to determine the rate of endophthalmitis, risk factors and clinical outcomes to help clinicians learn how to prevent, recognize and treat this important, and rare complication.
- Ferhina Ali, MD, Sierra Eye Associates. Currently, the clinical trial participants may not reflect the real-world population, which has implications for evaluating the effectiveness of treatments of the entire patient population and for improving future study enrollment. Dr. Ali will use the IRIS Registry database to describe the real-world outcomes of anti-VEGF treatment, including retinal vein occlusion, and evaluate differences in treatment outcome and treatment burden by patient demographics.
- Priya Mathews MD, Florida Eye Specialists and Cataract Institute. There have been a host of new treatments to treat keratoconus and endothelial disease, thereby changing the indications for penetrating keratoplasty to more severe cases. Dr. Mathews will use the IRIS Registry data to identify the current treatment patterns for penetrating keratoplasty, the clinical outcomes of penetrating keratoplasty and the complications and graft survival for patients undergoing penetrating keratoplasty and repeat penetrating keratoplasty.
- Alia Durrani, MD, The Retina Institute of St. Louis. Post-injection endophthalmitis is a rare event but is a serious, vision-threatening event. Studies to date have been at single centers or limited in scale. It would be helpful to evaluate this adverse event on a greater scale to enhance understanding of how best to prevent and manage this condition. Dr. Durrani will use the large IRIS Registry dataset to evaluate rate of post-injection endophthalmitis after intravitreal injections, define the treatment patterns, characterize the visual outcomes, and describe the risk factors.
2020 Winners of The H. Dunbar Hoskins Jr., MD, Center for Quality Eye Care IRIS® Registry Research Fund are:
- Elizabeth Atchison, M.D., Ophthalmology Ltd. Age-related macular degeneration is a leading cause of blindness and will increase in the future with the aging US population. Dr. Atchison will use the IRIS Registry data to identify the visual prognosis of patients in the real world with non-exudative age-related macular degeneration, to help physicians identify patients at greatest risk of severe visual loss and to identify where treatment patterns could be enhanced.
- David F. Chang, M.D. Currently, cataract surgeons need to determine how and which intraocular lens, either an anterior chamber or a posterior chamber intraocular lens, to implant in eyes without adequate capsular support. Dr. Chang will use the IRIS Registry database to describe the real-world outcomes of different types of intraocular lens, and surgeon preferences for different intraocular lenses, and to determine if they are any disparities in patient outcomes.
- Sunir Garg, M.D., Mid-Atlantic Retina Currently, patients with retinal detachments who receive surgery have good visual outcomes in most cases; however, there can be variability in outcome based on the timing of surgery. Dr. Garg will use the large IRIS Registry dataset to evaluate the impact of timing of surgical repair and visual outcome, which could help physicians counsel patients and potentially lead to even better results for patients with retinal detachments.
- Erich Horn, M.D. Ophthalmologists are continually examining ways to improve surgical outcomes and reduce complications, and in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an opportunity to evaluate the outcomes of patients receiving cataract surgery. Dr. Horn will use the large IRIS Registry dataset to determine if the delays in cataract surgery during 2020 resulted in any effect on patient outcome, and if so, this information can be used to create strategies to improve outcomes.
- Ramsudha Narala, M.D., Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group Uveitis is an ocular inflammatory disease that causes 10-15% of blindness in the United States, and systemic treatment with immunomodulatory treatment is one treatment modality in adults. Dr. Narala will use the IRIS Registry dataset to determine if use of immunomodulatory treatment in patients with newly diagnosed uveitis will prevent recurrence of inflammation and its complications.
2019 Winners of The H. Dunbar Hoskins Jr., MD, Center for Quality Eye Care IRIS® Registry Research Fund are:
- Rahul Khurana, M.D., Northern California Retina Associates. New treatment options for age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy have saved millions of Americans from blindness. But millions more are at risk of losing their vision to these two devastating conditions because they don’t return to their ophthalmologists for follow-up treatment. Dr. Khurana will use IRIS Registry data to identify risk factors that contribute to patients’ failure to return to their ophthalmologist for follow-up care.
- Wilkin Parke III, M.D., VitreoRetinal Surgery, PA. There are three surgical options for treating the most common type of retinal detachment, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. But only one, pneumatic retinopexy, is performed in the ophthalmologist’s office. It has several advantages: it’s more comfortable for the patient, recovery is quicker, and it’s less expensive. While clinical trials show this technique is effective, physicians have been slow to adopt it. Dr. Parke will use IRIS Registry data to describe the real-world outcomes of pneumatic retinopexy and to identify which patients are best suited for this type of surgery.
- Sudeep Pramanik, M.D., Mid Atlantic Cornea Consultants, clinical associate professor of Ophthalmology, University of Maryland. In the last decade, endothelial keratoplasty has become the most common type of corneal transplant surgery performed in the US. But the last, large database study evaluating this type of surgery is outdated, having looked at data from 2001 to 2009. Dr. Pramanik will use IRIS Registry data to evaluate the real-world indications and outcomes of this common procedure, which could potentially lead to even better results for patients.
- Raj Maturi, M.D., Midwest Eye Institute, associate professor of Ophthalmology, Indiana University School of Medicine. Treatment options for patients with diabetic macular edema have expanded recently. Many patients get more than one type of treatment to get the best results. Dr. Maturi will use IRIS Registry data to determine if physicians throughout the country are using all the treatment options available to improve outcomes for their patients. Additionally, Dr. Maturi will investigate whether patients who don’t smoke respond better to treatment compared with patients who do smoke.
Four abstracts for the 2020 Academy Annual Meeting were submitted, based on efforts on these projects.