Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) – BC’s Provincial Retinal Diseases Treatment Program
This issue rates highly amongst our growing concerns. The drug therapy most commonly promoted and used by ophthalmological specialists in BC for intravitreal injections has been linked to serious side effects. We provide details of our concerns and correspondence with BC’s Minister of Health on this issue.
We know that AMD-affected BC residents need to be keenly aware of – and need to clearly understand – these two critical points about this particular drug therapy:
- There is a range of Health Canada-approved treatment options available for intravitreal treatments of three conditions – AMD, Diabetic Macular Edema (DME), Retinal Vein Occlusion (RVO).
- The drug therapies used in at least 85% of these intravitreal treatments carry a Health Canada warning against their usage as a treatment for these eye conditions.
We have now also confirmed our two theories, which deduced that most ophthalmological specialists are providing their patients with neither full disclosure nor a choice of therapies, as evidenced by the results of this survey conducted with AMD-affected BC residents.