“It is not accepted that senile maculopathy is a chronic condition. The bill is already paid, but everything is still. Additionally, we are running communication efforts with pharmacists and general practitioners to encourage patient self-diagnosis. Lack of information, lack of treatment route sharing, loss of autonomy brought on by reduced vision, and depression, a condition that slows down the usage of treatments, are all factors “. In the online webinar titled “Age-related macular degeneration, growing demands, and important health policies for value-based assistance,” which was created with the unrestricted support of Roche Italy, Assia Andrao, president of the non-profit organization Retina Italia, spoke on behalf of patients.
A chronic retinal illness termed age-related macular degeneration, which was mentioned throughout the event, is one of the leading causes of blindness in those over 65 in developed countries. This condition requires intravitreal injections to be provided in a hospital setting as part of the therapeutic approach, however instead of the 1–8 administrations per year anticipated in clinical research, patients actually carry out 2-4, reducing the efficacy of the treatment. Stanislao Rizzo, director of ophthalmology at the Catholic University and Policlinico Gemelli Irccs, made the following observation in his speech: “The health facilities are not enough, they are congested, have an impressive burden, and the disease is expanding exponentially.”
On the one hand, adherence is frequently compromised “The patients skip a treatment because, according to Andrao, “there is a system problem where they claim they did not understand what the specialist explained” and, on the other hand, “they don’t feel like burdening the caregiver, making the child, the family member lose days of work.” “Non-adherence to therapies and clinical harms are caused by the lack of therapeutic route sharing. People, after a certain age, don’t want to worry and underestimate the effect of a missed injection, he continues, in addition to their fear of the injection “.