Verana Health and Sight Sciences Collaborate on Glaucoma Research Using Curated Real-World Data from the IRIS Registry

Glaucoma Qdata Contains More than 341,000 MIGS Records with Nearly Three Years of Patient Follow-Up

SAN FRANCISCO and MENLO PARK Calif., Jan. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Verana Health®—a digital health company elevating quality in real-world data (RWD)—and Sight Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SGHT), an eyecare technology company focused on creating innovative solutions intended to transform care and improve patients' lives, today announced a research collaboration designed to provide insights that may lead to improved outcomes for patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).

Sight Sciences will leverage Verana Health's Qdata® Glaucoma RWD module to evaluate various facets of its OMNI® Surgical System — a minimally invasive, implant-free glaucoma procedure that uniquely addresses all three known points of resistance in the aqueous outflow system: the trabecular meshwork, Schlemm's canal and the collector channels. Intraocular Pressure (IOP) is the only known modifiable risk factor for glaucoma, and OMNI enables surgeons to reduce IOP while avoiding more aggressive surgical interventions or foreign body implants associated with legacy minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) procedures. OMNI is indicated for canaloplasty followed by trabeculotomy, and can be used before, in combination with, or following cataract surgery.

Glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness worldwide, is a group of eye disorders that have few symptoms in their early stages but can eventually lead to damage of the optic nerve, resulting in vision loss or complete blindness. POAG is the most common form of glaucoma in the U.S., impacting 2.7 million Americans. While patients with POAG initially may not experience symptoms, eventually they lose their peripheral vision. Left untreated, POAG can cause a person to go blind.

Powered by real-world glaucoma data curated from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy) IRIS® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight), Qdata Glaucoma is the only data module that captures the full, real-world glaucoma patient journey. This fit-for-purpose data module offers curated data for:

• More than 5 million de-identified patients with linked closed claims
• More than 341,000 glaucoma patients who received MIGS procedures
• MIGS procedure details and IOP readings
• An average of 2.9 years follow-up for glaucoma patients

The IRIS Registry is one of the largest specialty society clinical data registries in all of medicine and the first comprehensive eye disease clinical registry in the U.S. Launched in 2014, it is amassed from more than 540 million patient visits, more than 75 million unique de-identified patients, more than 60 electronic health records systems (EHRs) and more than 16,000 clinicians and other eye care providers in their practices across the U.S. Verana Health is the Academy's exclusive end-to-end data curation and analytics partner for the IRIS Registry.

Shared CPT codes and the narrowness of the captured information make it exceedingly difficult for researchers to identify specific MIGS devices used through medical claims data alone. However, Verana Health's access to comprehensive patient journey information and advanced analytics allowed Sight Sciences to gain valuable insight into real-world, long-term evidence. In addition, the curated database includes de-identified patient outcomes data (such as IOP) that can't be found anywhere else¹.

"We chose to collaborate with Verana Health both for the company's access to curated ophthalmological data through the IRIS Registry and its suite of advanced analytics tools that enable insights into glaucoma treatments," said Jaime Dickerson, PhD, vice president of strategic clinical evidence at Sight Sciences. "Verana Health shares our conviction that high-quality RWD allows researchers to assess questions such as the long-term efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of glaucoma treatments and procedures in the real world."

Michael Mbagwu, MD, senior medical director for Verana Health says, "Sight Sciences shares our goal of improving outcomes and treatments for people with glaucoma. Their research using RWD from our Qdata Glaucoma module could result in better treatment selections that could help ease the many burdens facing patients with glaucoma and improve their quality of life."

Verana Health also has Ophthalmology Qdata modules for other ophthalmological conditions, such as dry age-related macular degeneration (dAMD), geographic atrophy, dry eye, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, and more.

Read about Sight Sciences' first study using the Qdata Glaucoma module in this case study.

Verana Health® is a digital health company elevating quality in real-world data. Verana Health operates an exclusive real-world data network of more than 20,000 healthcare providers (HCPs) and about 90 million de-identified patients, stemming from its strategic data partnerships with the American Academy of Ophthalmology®, American Academy of Neurology, and American Urological Association. Using its clinician-informed and artificial intelligence-enhanced VeraQ® population health data engine, Verana Health transforms structured and unstructured healthcare data into curated, disease-specific data modules, Qdata®. Verana Health's Qdata helps power analytics solutions and software-as-a-service products for real-world evidence generation, clinical trials enablement, HCP quality reporting, and medical registry data management. Verana Health's quality data and insights help drive progress in medicine to enhance the quality of care and quality of life for patients. For more information, visit www.veranahealth.com.

Sight Sciences is an eyecare technology company focused on developing and commercializing innovative solutions intended to transform care and improve patients' lives. Using minimally invasive or non-invasive approaches to target the underlying causes of the world's most prevalent eye diseases, Sight Sciences seeks to create more effective treatment paradigms that enhance patient care and supplant conventional outdated approaches. The Company's OMNI® Surgical System is a minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) device indicated to reduce intraocular pressure in adult patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), the world's leading cause of irreversible blindness. The SION™ Surgical Instrument is a bladeless, manually operated device used in ophthalmic surgical procedures to excise trabecular meshwork. The Company's TearCare® System is 510(k) cleared in the United States for the application of localized heat therapy in adult patients with evaporative dry eye disease due to meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), enabling office-based clearance of gland obstructions by physicians to address the leading cause of dry eye disease. For more information, visit www.sightsciences.com.

The OMNI® Surgical System is a handheld, single-use therapeutic device for minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS). It is indicated for canaloplasty (the microcatheterization and viscodilation of Schlemm's canal) followed by trabeculotomy (the cutting of trabecular meshwork) to reduce intraocular pressure in adult patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.

OMNI allows surgeons to access 360 degrees and three primary points of resistance of an eye's diseased conventional outflow pathway (trabecular meshwork, Schlemm's canal, and collector channels) through a single clear corneal microincision.

OMNI's FDA-cleared indication is for canaloplasty (the microcatheterization and viscodilation of Schlemm's canal) followed by trabeculotomy (the cutting of trabecular meshwork) to reduce intraocular pressure in adult patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. OMNI has a CE Mark for the catheterization and transluminal viscodilation of Schlemm's canal and the cutting of trabecular meshwork to reduce intraocular pressure in adult patients with open-angle glaucoma.

OMNI should not be used in any situations where the iridocorneal angle is compromised or has been damaged since it may not be possible to visualize the angle or to properly pass the microcatheter. Do not use the OMNI in patients with angle recession; neovascular glaucoma; chronic angle closure; narrow-angle glaucoma; traumatic or malignant glaucoma; or narrow inlet canals with plateau iris or in quadrants with previous MIGS implants.

OMNI received its first FDA clearance in 2017 and is protected by a global patent portfolio including 32 issued patents worldwide. OMNI is a registered trademark of Sight Sciences.

For more information, visit www.OMNIsurgical.com

Media contacts:
Megan Moriarty
Amendola Communications
913.515.7530
[email protected] 

Carmen Caricchio 
C2M Group 
[email protected] 

SOURCE Verana Health