Verana Health Unveils Annual Ophthalmic Industry Report that Shows a More Than 80% Glaucoma Surgery Uptake Over 8-Year Period

Digital health data company releases the results of its 2021 American Academy of Ophthalmology IRIS® Registry Report at ASCRS 2022

SAN FRANCISCO, April 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Verana Health®—a digital health data company elevating quality in real-world data—today announced the release of its American Academy of Ophthalmology IRIS® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight) Industry Report for 2021 at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Annual Meeting being held April 22-26 in Washington, D.C. The report provides 8 years of detailed ophthalmic insights generated through analysis of the data contained in the IRIS Registry, powered by Verana Health's VeraQ™ population health data engine.

The IRIS Registry is the nation's first and the world's largest electronic health record-based registry on comprehensive eye disease and conditions. It incorporates data on nearly 72 million patients and more than 434 million billable visits. These data have been contributed by nearly 3,000 participating ophthalmology practices across the U.S.

The IRIS Registry Report shows a more than 80% increase in glaucoma surgeries over an 8-year period from 2013-2021*. More than 1 million glaucoma procedures were performed during this time, showing a steady climb in overall volume, but shifts were observed in the breakdown of procedure type. For example, trabeculectomies peaked in 2015 with 14,600 procedures annually, then declined to just 9,300 per year by 2021. Over this same period, there was an increase in implantation of trabecular meshwork bypass stents.

The report also outlines Verana Health's curation of research-ready cohorts to better understand disease and treatment impacts for ocular surface health. For example, it has been challenging to gather treatment data on dry eye/ocular surface disease due to the lack of ICD codes to distinguish mild, moderate, and severe forms of the condition. However, much of this qualifying information is contained in the unstructured clinical notes in longitudinal electronic health record (EHR) data.

Using natural language processing (NLP) combined with clinician oversight, VeraQ is starting to extract and characterize relevant free-form text from millions of EHR records on different categories of dry eye. This process is helping to assemble meaningful, structured data variables, such as condition severity, which can be used to generate novel insights on dry eye.

The report also summarizes 15 peer-reviewed research studies in 2021 that were powered by IRIS Registry data. Much of the research provides a deeper understanding of rare conditions such as chemical burns, endophthalmitis, pediatric choroidal neovascularization, and inherited retinal dystrophies that are otherwise difficult to study.   

"By de-identifying, harmonizing, and tokenizing IRIS Registry data within our VeraQ platform across dozens of EHR systems—and often linking it with claims data—we broaden the view of the ophthalmic patient journey," said Michael Mbagwu, M.D., Adjunct Clinical Instructor of Ophthalmology, Stanford University School of Medicine and Medical Director at Verana Health. "Verana Health also curates this structured and unstructured data at scale to produce high-quality data modules, Ophthalmology Qdata™, which help power valuable clinical and therapeutic insights. The expanding number of studies utilizing IRIS Registry data demonstrates how this endeavor is driving medical innovations."

IRIS Registry findings tied to the dexamethasone ophthalmic insert (DEXTENZA, Ocular Therapeutix) will also be shared during two paper sessions at ASCRS 2022 during the Medications (Preoperative, Postoperative, Intraoperative) session from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 24th.

1. Robert Chang, M.D., Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Stanford University School of Medicine, will present findings from a research paper titled: "Real-World Safety Analysis of an Intracanalicular Dexamethasone Insert Using the IRIS® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight)" from 1:30 to 1:35 p.m.
2. Dr. Mbagwu will present "Real-World Characteristics of Patients Treated with Intracanalicular Dexamethasone Insert: An IRIS® Registry Analysis 2019-2021 from 1:43 to 1:48 p.m.

To receive a copy of the report, or to arrange an interview, contact Verana Health here. 

*Procedures may occur in the same patient or patient eye.

About Verana Health

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.

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

SOURCE Verana Health