If you want to predict eye surgery’s future, ask someone who pioneered the techniques used today.

For this week’s podcast, Firas Rahhal, MD spoke with OIS Lifetime Innovator Award recipient Stanley Chang, MD, at the recent ASRS meeting about how the techniques he pioneered in the 1980s and 1990s have come full circle. 

Dr. Chang was the first to use perfluoropropane gas in the management of retinal detachments caused by scar tissue proliferation (PVR) on the retina. In the 1980s, he used SF6 and C3F8 gasses in vitreoretinal surgery. At the time, he wanted to find a longer-lasting gas. Today, drug developers want longer-lasting anti-VEGF therapies.

The next cycle of innovation may bring a new gene therapy, drug delivery device, or compound that provides even longer-lasting benefits. To brings those therapies to market, however, Dr. Chang emphasizes that physician-researchers need strong scientific and corporate teams.

Listen to this week’s podcast to hear Dr. Chang discuss:

• What drove the process for the use of perfluoropropane gasses and perfluorocarbon liquids used in retinal surgery.
• What he views as the future of eye treatment, and why he hopes patient benefit will prevail over dollar volume.
• The next step for tamponades used in retinal detachment surgery.
  
  

LinkedIn: Dr. Stanley Chang pioneered the use of gas injection for vitreoretinal surgery. Listen to our latest podcast to hear Dr. Chang’s thoughts on retinal surgery’s past, present, and future.

Twitter: Listen to the latest OIS podcast to hear industry pioneer Dr. Stanley Chang discuss retinal surgery’s past, present, and future. Listen Now: