Raising awareness of rare eye diseases

After more than 30 years professionally involved in developing treatments for rare diseases, one of our Founders, Julie Matthews, has recently been diagnosed with a rare eye disease herself - Salzmann Nodular Degeneration (SND)¹.

SND manifested as a rapid and significant decline in Julie's eyesight.

It seems that opticians, and even clinical ophthalmologists, may often be either unaware (or are not actively looking for) this or other rare eye diseases.

Thus, the first consultant ophthalmologist Julie saw was sympathetic, but after a slit-lamp examination said Julie's cornea was 'just distorted' and nothing could be done.

Luckily, Julie and Mike decided they should get a second opinion, this time from a corneal expert.

The corneal expert, Mr Thomas Poole, of Frimley Park Hospital, repeated Julie's slit-lamp exam and immediately diagnosed SND.

"I can help you" he said.

Four wonderful words — and, soon afterwards, a relatively simple surgical procedure corrected the issue.

Hence Duet Health is including in our list of key 'Missions' the raising of awareness of SND and other rare eye diseases. Duet Health will support educational meetings for local opticians and ophthalmologists, to be spearheaded by our corneal expert and his colleagues.

¹ Paranjpe V, Galor A, Monsalve P, Dubovy SR, Karp CL. Salzmann nodular degeneration: prevalence, impact, and management strategies. Clin Ophthalmol. 2019 Jul 25;13:1305-1314. doi: 10.2147/OPTH.S166280. PMID: 31413538; PMCID: PMC6663077.