Ophthalmology medicine offers increasingly refined solutions but must deal with a healthcare system that imposes outdated rules and with cuts in public spending. It was discussed at the third S ISO (Italian Society of Ophthalmological Sciences) national congress, underway in Rome, with over 2800 specialists from all over Italy.
"On the one hand, we are seeing advances on a scientific and clinical level. On the other, we have regulatory problems. An example for everyone is cataract surgery: today we perform it in 20 minutes, we have very advanced lens prostheses, we make 600 thousand of them a year, but anachronistic regulations force us to follow redundant rules that raise costs and consequently lengthen waiting lists," he says. Italy is also the first place in Europe for the administration of intravitreal injections which administer drugs which, by inhibiting the growth factors of new blood vessels, slow down the degeneration of the macula, the central area of the retina.