Notal Vision Reports Publication of First U.S. Home OCT Study Results
Manassas, VA (March 8th, 2022) - Digital healthcare provider Notal Vision today announced that results of the first U.S.-based study with its investigational home-based optical coherence tomography (OCT) platform have been published in Ophthalmology Retina1. The Notal Home OCT pipeline technology is designed to provide patient-initiated retinal OCT scans to support the management of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), complementing existing standard of care treatments as well as emerging longer acting drugs and drug delivery systems.
Investigators from Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston and Pepose Vision Institute in St. Louis report findings comparing patient self-operated Notal Home OCT using proprietary Notal OCT Analyzer (NOA™) artificial intelligence (Al), with the standard of care in-office OCT analyzed by retina specialists. The investigators found over 95% agreement when comparing retinal fluid detection capability, a primary marker for treatment guidance, between Notal Home OCT and in-office OCT.
The results are highly significant for management of patients suffering from wet AMD, the leading cause of blindness in the United States. Several wet-AMD treatments have been developed over the last 2 decades. However, they require frequent visits by the patients to the physicians for assessment of the fluid status, placing a huge burden on physicians, patients and caregivers, which has limited the real-world efficacy of these treatments.
"Insights of disease dynamics and treatment response gained from Al-based analysis of up to daily home OCT images provide new opportunities for personalized treatment and potentially better outcomes" said Jeffrey S. Heier, MD, one of the study`s principal investigators and director of the retinal service and retinal research at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston. "Remote monitoring services can help retina specialists extend care to patients` homes and provide timely treatment in the office as needed."
The study evaluated the ability of subjects with AMD to perform sequential daily self-imaging of their eyes for three months. The cohort included 15 patients and 29 eyes demonstrating 95% successful completion rate over approximately 2500 scans performed. Each scan took less than 40 seconds per eye to complete. Following self-setup at home, subjects used the device an average of 5.7 days per week, and a median of one scan reminder call was provided by the patient engagement and compliance monitoring service of the Notal Vision Monitoring Center, future medical provider of the Notal Home OCT program. In addition, patients responded positively 97% of times in the survey regarding ease of use and convenience of daily imaging.