Dr. Bennett Sees First OTHS Phase 3 Study Patient

Dr. G. Richard Bennett, director of the Glaucoma Service at The Eye Institute (TEI), was congratulated this week on being the first practitioner to see an Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS) Phase 3 participant. The congratulations came from Dr. Michael Kass of Washington University St. Louis, lead investigator of the study, which is funded through the National Eye Institute (NEI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Bennett was also congratulated by Salus president, Dr. Michael H. Mittelman, who added, “You are once again leading the charge and setting the pace for this important study. Thank you for what you’re doing.”

The first phase of the study began twenty years ago and it concerns the benefits of reducing elevated intraocular pressure in the development of open-angle glaucoma (POAG). POAG is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States and the leading cause of blindness in African Americans. Elevated intraocular pressure (ocular hypertension or OHT) is a major risk factor for developing POAG and the only modifiable risk factor at present and affects 4-7% of the United States population above the age of 40. A major public health issue arising from OHT is how to apply the principles of patient- centered care and manage this large group of people in an effective and cost-effective manner.

Phases 1 and 2 of the study carefully followed OHT participants for a median of 13 years. This includes 279 participants who developed POAG during the study, the largest inception cohort of POAG patients ever described. Phase 3 proposes to re-examine all surviving OHTS participants at 20 years or more in the years 2016-2018. Phase 3 will allow the development of evidence-based, 20-year guidelines for the management of patients with OHT. This will aid patients and clinicians to make informed decisions about the appropriate frequency of examinations and tests and the benefit of early, preventative treatment. The study hopes that those informed decisions will improve outcomes, reduce costs and reduce patient and clinician burden.

Dr. Bennett noted that as of this week he has seen 21 OHTS Phase 3 participants (15 at his private practice and six at TEI) and has already seen two follow-up OHTS patients. He expressed his pleasure at participating in “this important follow-up study to OHTS” and noted that his study coordinator, Lindsay Bennett, had “orchestrated our success in this final phase of the OHTS.”