Can at-home vision tests detect active neovascular (wet) AMD?

Key Takeaways

• Three at-home vision-monitoring tools failed to detect worsening neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a diagnostic-test accuracy study reported.
• The authors say that the findings support rigorous evaluation of such technologies in the settings and populations for which they are intended before widespread implementation. 

Three at-home vision-monitoring tools failed to detect worsening neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a diagnostic-test accuracy study reported. The paper-based KeepSight Journal from the International Macular and Retinal Foundation, Genentech’s MyVisionTrack app, and Visumetrics’ MultiBit app failed to identify active disease among 259 patients under treatment for neovascular AMD, according to researchers led by Ruth Hogg, PhD, of Queen’s University Belfast in Ireland. 

“In this context, I would not be confident on relying on any of these tests,” Hogg told MedPage Today. The paper in JAMA Ophthalmology reiterated that message, saying that “implementing any of these evaluated tests, with ophthalmologists only reviewing test positives, would mean most active lesions were missed, risking unnecessary sight loss.”

While the findings didn’t support clinical roll-out, they “do support rigorous evaluation of such technologies in the settings and populations for which they are intended before widespread implementation,” Hogg and colleagues concluded.

The study authors reported multiple relationships with industry.

Edited by Miriam Kaplan, PhD

Source: Randy Dotinga, MedPage Today, May 2, 2024; see source article