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Review
Review of glaucoma medication adherence monitoring in the digital health era
  1. Alaa Erras1,
  2. Bita Shahrvini1,
  3. Robert N Weinreb1,
  4. Sally L Baxter1,2
  1. 1 Hamilton Glaucoma Center, Shiley Eye Institute and Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
  2. 2 Health Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sally L Baxter, Hamilton Glaucoma Center, Shiley Eye Institute and Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology, UCSD, La Jolla, California, USA; s1baxter{at}health.ucsd.edu

Abstract

Current glaucoma treatments aim to lower intraocular pressure, often with topical ocular hypotensive medications. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of these medications depends on sustained patient adherence to regimens which may involve instilling multiple medications several times daily. Patient adherence to glaucoma medications is often low. Recent innovations in digital sensor technologies have been leveraged to confirm eyedrop medication usage in real-time and relay this information back to providers. Some sensors have also been designed to deliver medication reminders and notifications as well as assist with correct eyedrop administration technique. Here, we review recent innovations targeted at improving glaucoma medication adherence and discuss their limitations.

  • glaucoma
  • treatment medical
  • diagnostic tests/investigation
  • telemedicine

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjophthalmol-2020-317918

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @SallyLiuBaxter

    • AE and BS contributed equally.

    • Contributors SLB conceived and designed the study. AE and BS conducted primary literature review. AE, BS and SLB drafted the manuscript.

    • Funding This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA, grants T15LM011271, DP5OD029610 and 1R01MD014850) and by an unrestricted departmental grant from Research to Prevent Blindness (New York, NY; no award number available).

    • Competing interests RNW is a co-founder and officer of Toromodes, which has licensed the patent for commercialisation of the 'Smart Drop' electronic sensor device described in the article.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.