We frequently are asked questions about the ForeseeHome device and how it works. This month we continue with:
Why do I have to test so often?
The answer is that the more often you test, up to once a day, the more likely it is that the ForeseeHome device will help detect wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) while your visual acuity is still good. Testing more than once a day is not helpful, nor advised.
The HOME study, which was the initial clinical trial of the ForeseeHome system published in 2014, showed that patients who tested at least twice a week were more likely to be detected with good vision than those who tested less than twice a week. The most recent real-world study of the ForeseeHome monitoring program, the ALOFT study, conducted at five large clinics looking at more than 2,000 patients (over 3,000 eyes) monitored over a 10-year period, showed that not only was wet AMD detected early when the visual acuity was good in those who converted, but that good vision was maintained for years with treatment. The fact that most patients were testing a little over five times a week in the study almost certainly contributed to these astonishing results.
Every time you test, the ForeseeHome device evaluates your scores to determine if a change has occurred. The artificial intelligence-enabled device looks at your baseline, the previous tests you completed, and compares them to recent tests. Based on its analysis of your test scores, the algorithm will then decide if it is likely, with each analysis, that you have changes consistent with a potential conversion to wet AMD. If so, it will issue an alert, which goes to the Notal Vision Monitoring Center, where it is reviewed by our clinical team and then sent to your eye doctor’s office. One of the Medical Directors also reviews the alert.
If you do not test on any given day, the ForeseeHome device will make no decision on changes in your eye(s) that day because it has no new data to evaluate. It cannot issue an alert if you convert until you begin testing again. However, there is no reason for concern if you do not test every day. Although we know that early diagnosis of wet AMD, while vision is good, leads to early treatment of wet AMD and preservation of vision, there is no evidence that a few days as to when treatment is started, make any difference in outcomes. Our opinion, based on the testing frequency in the ALOFT study, is that testing every day, or at least every other day, is ideal.
Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter with more answers to your questions! If you have a question, you would like answered in the newsletter, click here to submit.
