SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2017 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — For most people, being nearsighted is a nuisance, easily treated with a prescription for glasses or contact lenses. But some experience a complication that can cause permanent blindness.

It’s called myopic choroidal neovascularization, and it affects about 41,000 people in the United States. It occurs when new, damaging blood vessels grow beneath the retina at the back of the eye. Patients experience a severe loss of vision in the central part of their sight. If not treated early, patients can suffer permanent vision loss.

Because it’s a rare condition, there are few studies offering ophthalmologists guidance on how best to treat it.  Which treatments do ophthalmologists offer? When do they treat? How well does treatment work? 

To find answers, researchers turned to the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s eye disease clinical registry, the IRIS® Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight). The IRIS Registry is the largest source of real-time data on ophthalmic care nationwide. It currently holds clinical information from 134 million office visits to more than 16,000 ophthalmologists and eye care professionals in the U.S.

“Simply put, data drives good medicine. Physicians need the latest, most accurate information to deliver the best care to our patients,” said David W. Parke II, MD, the executive vice president and CEO of the Academy. “This can be a real challenge when you’re dealing with a rare condition. That’s why the IRIS Registry is becoming a powerful tool to help guide decisions by ophthalmologists and their patients.”

The result is the largest study ever conducted on this devastating condition. Published online in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the study shows that patients treated early with an anti-VEGF drug experienced significant improvement in their vision. Patients who received no treatment lost vision.  Anti-VEGF drugs target a chemical in the body that causes abnormal blood vessels to grow under the retina. Blocking VEGF reduces blood vessel growth and slows their leakage, helps to slow vision loss, and in some cases improves vision.

This study also showed that the patients did not need more than three anti-VEGF injections over the course of a year to achieve significant improvement in their vision.

As important, this study has proven once again that the IRIS Registry is an effective tool to gain insight into real-world diagnostic, preventive, and treatment patterns of ophthalmic conditions in the United States.

About the American Academy of Ophthalmology 
The American Academy of Ophthalmology is the world’s largest association of eye physicians and surgeons. A global community of 32,000 medical doctors, we protect sight and empower lives by setting the standards for ophthalmic education and advocating for our patients and the public. We innovate to advance our profession and to ensure the delivery of the highest-quality eye care. Our EyeSmart^® program provides the public with the most trusted information about eye health. For more information, visit aao.org.

About Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology, the official journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, publishes original, peer-reviewed, clinically-applicable research. Topics include the results of clinical trials, new diagnostic and surgical techniques, treatment methods, technology assessments, translational science reviews and editorials. For more information, visit www.aaojournal.org.

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WOONSOCKET, Rhode Island, May 10, 2017 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) today released its tenth annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, entitled Prescription for a Better World, providing updates on progress against the company’s 2016 CSR goals, and establishing several new performance targets.

Accomplishments in 2016 spanned the company’s strategic CSR pillars of Health in Action, Planet in Balance and Leader in Growth and illustrate its efforts to make health care more affordable, accessible and effective; provide customers with healthier and more sustainable products; and operate its business sustainably and responsibly.

New performance targets introduced in this year’s report include expanding the company’s commitment to preventing and mitigating prescription drug abuse by increasing pharmacist education and outreach to 750,000 children and families by 2020. In addition, to respond to the health care industry’s complex and ever-changing compliance landscape, the company is harnessing new technologies that help colleagues stay informed of and comply with regulations and has committed to providing more than two million hours of annual compliance training to colleagues across the enterprise.

“We’re incredibly proud of everything we accomplished in 2016 and believe that our business contributions have helped to address critical health care issues and deliver more affordable, accessible and effective care,” said Larry Merlo, President and Chief Executive Officer for CVS Health. “Our corporate social responsibility strategy supports our growing business while helping people on their path to better health and making the world a healthier place to live.”

Key highlights from the 2016 Report include:

Health in Action

• Delivered a low-cost alternative to auto-injectable epinephrine as one way to increase the affordability of prescription drugs
• Broadened MinuteClinic® services and piloted a first-of-its-kind partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to offer clinic services to more than 60,000 veterans served by the Palo Alto VA. The success of the pilot resulted in the recent expansion of the program to provide quality care to veterans served by the Phoenix VA Health Care System.
• Expanded healthier food and beverage offerings to more than 2,900 stores nationwide
• Reached more than 170,000 students with prescription drug abuse education through the Pharmacists Teach® program
• Introduced Be The First, a five-year, $50 million initiative to help deliver the nation’s first tobacco-free generation

Planet in Balance

• Advanced efforts to address chemicals of consumer concern by announcing the removal of parabens, phthalates and the most prevalent formaldehyde donors across nearly 600 beauty and personal care products from its store brand CVS Health, Beauty 360, Essence of Beauty, and Blade product lines
• Published and implemented a Responsible Palm Oil Sourcing Policy and committed to sourcing 100 percent of palm oil used in CVS Health products from verified, responsible sources by 2020
• Committed to developing a science-based emissions reduction target to align greenhouse gas emission reductions with global emissions budgets generated by climate models and joined more than 250 companies setting their emissions reduction targets in line with climate science

Leader in Growth

• Published a Human Rights Policy that formalizes practices within our workplace and supply chain and aligns with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
• Achieved our goal of spending $1 billion annually with diverse suppliers by 2017, one year ahead of schedule, and became one of 26 U.S.-based companies named to the Billion Dollar Roundtable, a top-level corporate advocacy organization that promotes supply-chain diversity excellence
• Committed to expanding the company’s Registered Apprenticeships program to 3,000 participants by 2020

“Prescription for a Better World is more than the title of our report – it’s a comprehensive approach to CSR that engages colleagues across our organization to make measurable progress in fulfilling our purpose,” Eileen Howard Boone, SVP of Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy for CVS Health writes in the Report. “As I look ahead to the next ten years, I see so many opportunities for our CSR strategy to play an even bigger role in supporting our business and delivering value to our customers, communities and stakeholders.”

The Report was developed in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Guidelines, an international framework that is widely used by organizations to report on their CSR and sustainability performance. For more information on GRI, visit http://www.globalreporting.org/.

The Report is available online at http://cvshealth.com/social-responsibility/corporate-social-responsibility.

About CVS Health
CVS Health is a pharmacy innovation company helping people on their path to better health. Through its nearly 9,700 retail locations, more than 1,100 walk-in medical clinics, a leading pharmacy benefits manager with nearly 90 million plan members, a dedicated senior pharmacy care business serving more than one million patients per year, expanding specialty pharmacy services, and a leading stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, the company enables people, businesses and communities to manage health in more affordable and effective ways. This unique integrated model increases access to quality care, delivers better health outcomes and lowers overall health care costs. Find more information about how CVS Health is shaping the future of health at https://www.cvshealth.com.

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