Glaucoma UK and Santen UK partner to tackle one of the major challenges in glaucoma therapy, patient adherence to medication
14 December 2020 – St Albans, UK – Santen UK, the global specialist company in ophthalmology, announces the launch of the Glaucoma Adherence Toolkit, in collaboration with the charity Glaucoma UK. The toolkit features a host of educational resources designed to support healthcare professionals in empowering people living with glaucoma to form positive habits around medication adherence, leading to effective long-term management of the condition.
The toolkit contains the ‘My Personal Glaucoma Monitoring Record’ (or also known as the ‘Orange Book’), a personal monitoring record for people with glaucoma or those at risk of developing the condition. The record contains insights and tips, and space to record all the information needed to help people living with glaucoma – and healthcare professionals working with them – to monitor and manage their condition. In addition, a Continuing Professional Development (CPD)-accredited module, ‘The Ideas, Concerns, Expectations (ICE)’ training is also available part of the toolkit. The ICE approach provides healthcare professionals with a framework, applicable for everyday practice in the clinics to improve patient consultations and overall treatment outcomes.
In the UK, glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable vision loss and affects around 700,000 people. Medical treatment of glaucoma using eye drops is the most common form of initial treatment and requires good adherence. However, adherence to medication has been shown to be poor, whereby almost 50% of people living with glaucoma may discontinue treatment within six months of starting therapy.
“Good adherence to glaucoma treatment plays an essential role in helping patients preserve their sight, but remains an ongoing challenge for patients and professionals alike,” said Karen Osborn, Chief Executive, Glaucoma UK. “We are therefore delighted to have worked alongside Santen UK and a multi-disciplinary team of leading experts to develop new resources for healthcare professionals that will help their patients adopt strategies for incorporating medication administration into daily activities.”
The materials were developed in close collaboration with people living with glaucoma and health professionals working in glaucoma clinics around the UK, which was evaluated in a real world setting in five ophthalmology clinics across the country.
“By empowering people on intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering eye drops to achieve good adherence from the very start, we can help them maintain their sight and enjoy a good quality of visual health for longer,” said Karl Mercieca, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. “We hope to increase education and awareness around the importance of self-management and shared decision-making about treatments that can improve adherence to treatment that can prevent avoidable visual loss.”
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About Glaucoma UK
Glaucoma UK is a charity for people with glaucoma. We’re here for people with glaucoma and their loved ones. We campaign to raise awareness so glaucoma is detected early and can be treated, we support people to live well with glaucoma and we fund sight-saving research.
We are a membership organisation, and those living with glaucoma are at the very heart of all we do. We support people to live well with glaucoma by providing a telephone helpline, glaucoma support groups, peer support services and widely acclaimed information booklets.
For more information, please visit our website www.glaucoma.uk.
Glaucoma helpline: 01233 64 81 70 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am–5.00pm).
About Santen
As a specialised company dedicated to the ophthalmology field, Santen carries out research, development, marketing, and sales of pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter products and devices. Santen has long been the market leader in Japan for prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals and is now a leader in the sector in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region. With scientific knowledge and organisational capabilities nurtured over 130 years, Santen products and services now reach over 60 countries, contributing to the well-being of patients, their loved ones and consequently to society. For more information, please visit www.santen.ie.
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REFERENCES
i Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth). 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.rcophth.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/RCOphth-The-Way-Forward-Glaucoma-300117.pdf> [Accessed 22 October 2020].
ii Tse, A., Shah, M., Jamal, N. and Shaikh, A., 2016. Glaucoma treatment adherence at a United Kingdom general practice. Eye, 30(8), pp.1118-1122
iii Bansal RK et al. J Current Glaucoma Practice. 2007; 1: 22-25
