Verana Health Study of Patients with Dry AMD Published in International Ophthalmology

Verana Health—a digital health company elevating quality in real-world data—announced that Ophthalmology and Therapy, an international, peer-reviewed medical journal, has published the results of a study Verana Health conducted to analyze American Academy of Ophthalmology (Academy) IRIS Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight) data for insights into characterizing the most common form of vision loss in the elderly population, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The study, "Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Distribution of Visual Acuity and Progression Risk in a Large Registry," is a novel study to report on how the stage of disease, as determined by visual acuity (VA), can help predict the risk of progression in dry AMD (AMD) by stage.

The study used curated real-world data from the Academy IRIS Registry—managed by Verana Health's VeraQ population health data engine—to better understand how patients progress through the stages of dry AMD. After searching a database of de-identified patient records, researchers evaluated a cohort of approximately 645,000 patients with confirmed dry AMD.

Tracking these patients over a 4-year period (2016-2019), the study determined that patients with a lower ability to see, or lower VA, at the beginning of the study period had more advanced dry AMD. Researchers also concluded that as these patients' disease worsened, so did their vision. More specifically, the study concluded that:

• Patients with intermediate dry AMD were four times more likely to progress to GA than patients with mild dry AMD.
• There was a larger variation in VA among patients with GA compared to those with mild or intermediate dry AMD.
• VA progression generally is faster with each progressive dry AMD stage.
• Disease progression to GA and wet AMD occurred much faster once a patient reached the intermediate dry AMD stage.
• Results speak to the urgent need for an effective therapy to avoid long-term effects of dry AMD and GA.

"The clinical recommendation we can draw from this study is that if you have a patient with intermediate AMD, you need to watch them more closely than someone with mild dry AMD," said Theodore Leng, MD, director of research at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University School of Medicine and a Verana Health medical advisor. "These findings highlight the need for new medication options to reverse or delay the worsening of dry AMD and improve the quality of life for patients. We are hopeful that the results will guide novel therapies for dry AMD that are on the cusp of being approved."

To request a copy of the recently published study, conducted by Dr. Leng and a team of researchers from Verana Health, visit: veranahealth.com/amd-manuscript.