Ted Smith, MD, PhD: Collaboration and Advancements in the Retina Space

At the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting 2018, R. Theodore Smith, MD, PhD, sat down with MD Magazine® to discuss some new research to reduce the burden of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and how retina imaging can revolutionize the space.

Dr. Smith, a professor of ophthalmology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will be presenting his research on hyperspectral autofluorescence imaging of AMD later this weekend in a presentation at the meeting.

Interview transcript: (modified slightly for readability)

MD Magazine®: What are some areas of research that you are focusing on in the ophthalmology space?

Smith: We’re also looking at the characteristic lesions of age-related macular degeneration that are most strongly associated with systemic vascular disease. Some of our patients also suffer heart disease, they’ve had strokes, and what we’ve found is that those patients have a particular manifestation of macular degeneration of the subretinal deposits. We can detect those on OCT imaging and on all the fluorescent imaging.

So, we’re trying to work with our colleagues in cardiology and neurology to determine who are the most vulnerable patients and what cohorts we should be following most carefully for their systemic diseases and their effect on their eyes.

MD Magazine®: What are some important takeaways for physicians in the retina field?

Smith: I think that in broad terms, for those of us in the retina field, different types of retina imaging offer different types of information. The more that we can learn from imaging, the more we can learn about the disease processes in a very non-invasive way; so, we don’t have to go and get tissues, we don’t have to take biopsies, we can take pictures with different types of cameras and I think that’s the way of the future, to understand and manage those diseases.