A year after launching its intense pulsed light (IPL) pilot, Specsavers ANZ Head of Professional Services Dr Joseph Paul shares how the business is making an impact for its patients with dry eye disease.
Dry eye disease is characterised by a deficiency in the quantity or quality of tears, causing inflammation and damage of the ocular surface. It affects an estimated 4.3 million Australians,1 and this prevalence is rapidly increasing due to the use of screens and the ageing population.
While there are a variety of management strategies for treating the symptoms of dry eye – from lifestyle modification to therapeutic intervention, eye drops and IPL therapy – effectiveness and popularity with patients can differ.
Dry eye drops treat the symptoms of dry eye, but compliance is an ongoing concern, as patients may adhere to treatment initially but stop using their eye drops in the long term.
IPL treatment, however, has been identified as a highly effective treatment for dry eye, and in particular, meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), the leading cause of evaporative dry eye. IPL treatment is a painless procedure that effectively treats the underlying causes of dry eye and delivers long-lasting relief from symptoms. The therapy delivers broad-spectrum light pulses, targeting abnormal blood vessels and stimulating the natural flow of oil. This process enhances the function of meibomian glands, improving tear film stability, and reducing the irritation associated with dry eye.
the IPL pilot aims to provide an affordable, long-term treatment option for patients who experience evaporative dry eye – the majority of the estimated 1.5 million Specsavers patients who suffer from dry eye disease
In an expansion of our current services, Specsavers launched a pilot of an in-practice service of IPL treatments in May last year. Then, during the Specsavers Clinical Conference in September, we announced the decision to broaden the IPL pilot to nine stores across the country. Dr Ben Ashby, Specsavers ANZ Clinical Services Director, said the project was part of the company’s strategy to elevate patient care and offer new professional development opportunities for our optometrists across the country. He emphasised that the IPL pilot aims to provide an affordable, long-term treatment option for patients who experience evaporative dry eye – the majority of the estimated 1.5 million Specsavers patients who suffer from dry eye disease.
“Optometrists are already trained in diagnosis and management of dry eye, and the disease has long been identified as an area of opportunity for Specsavers,” Dr Ashby said.
“Australians shouldn’t have to live with the irritating and sometimes painful symptoms of dry eye disease if effective treatment is available. We are eager to apply our expertise, driving both improved outcomes for our patients and increased professional job satisfaction for our optometrists and team members who can make such an impact on their patients by assisting in this way.”
The Pilot Programme
Specsavers opted to start the IPL pilot in a small number of Australian stores so that it could drive a fast-moving ‘test and learn’ situation, with patient outcomes monitored and feedback from optometrists and patients gathered in real time. This allowed for agility as the approach and processes were fine-tuned before the pilot expanded.
We know from published protocols that patients usually need to undergo at least four IPL applications to enable long-term improvements to their dry eye symptoms. However anecdotally, patients can see a considerable improvement in their symptoms after just two applications.
For our Specsavers IPL offering, we work with patients on treatment options that suit them, explaining the benefits of a full course of treatment followed by ongoing IPL maintenance annually. This will ensure that patients receive the optimum benefits from the treatment.
Specsavers supported pilot stores to deliver IPL treatments with comprehensive training for team members and optometrists, by streamlining administrative workload, and introducing new clinic management processes.
These high-support programmes were supported by suppliers and specifically developed to equip practitioners with the necessary skills and confidence to recommend and administer IPL safely and effectively.
As IPL treatment is currently not funded by Medicare, all treatment costs are covered out-of-pocket by the customer. A key aim of this pilot was to make IPL therapy as accessible as possible for patients, leading to enhanced eye health outcomes for Australians. Industry-wide, there is an inconsistent adoption or offer of IPL for the treatment of dry eye, so in the pilot phase we spent a lot of time determining a price point that is good value for customers while also sustainable for our store partners.
Results to Date
Specsavers offered IPL treatment at its first pilot store in May 2024 and its fifth store in October 2024. At the time of writing, our pilot stores had together provided care for 319 patients, administering over 1,000 IPL applications. Demographic data shows the treatment was more likely to be taken up by females than males and the most common age for receiving treatment was 51–60 years old.
This data is in line with the anticipated uptake of the treatment, largely following published prevalence rates of dry eye disease, and our core customer demographics for the locations we’ve piloted in.
It is too early to see comprehensive data on outcomes, but trends to date indicate very good compliance with follow-up treatments and around 90% of patients reporting improvements to their dry eye symptoms after a full course of treatment.
Optometrists in the pilot stores have been happy to offer this additional in-practice service and interested to observe how it can quickly and effectively alleviate the symptoms of dry eye, including redness, irritation, and blurred vision, helping our patients live more comfortably.
The initial positive feedback from practitioners and patients supports the potential of IPL therapy becoming a cornerstone of Specsavers’ dry eye management offering.
Next Steps
Following from the pilot expansion announcement, two additional stores are already offering IPL treatment, and we expect the pilot will expand further in the months ahead.
The initial positive feedback from practitioners and patients supports the potential of IPL therapy becoming a cornerstone of Specsavers’ dry eye management offering. However, as always, ongoing data monitoring and evaluation of patient outcomes will inform any future decisions regarding integration into more Specsavers locations across Australia.
With the increasing prevalence rates of dry eye disease in Australia, combined with a lack of easily obtained information and accessible treatment options, Specsavers will continue its work in trialling and monitoring the IPL dry eye treatment to improve patients’ quality of life.
We’re now focussed on making the experience even more seamless for our IPL patients, then working to make the service as accessible as possible so that hopefully in the future, the harsh symptoms of dry eye disease will be a thing of the past for Australians.
Dr Joseph Paul is the Australia and New Zealand Head of Professional Services for Specsavers.
Reference
- Hauschild M. Benefits of building a dry eye practice, mivision. 190;86-87, available at: mivision.com.au/2023/06/benefits-of-building-a-dry-eye-practice/ [accessed Jan 2024].
