Bayer Middle East launches Alleye Home Monitoring Sponsorship Program

• Diabetic Macular Edema is the most common diabetic eye diseases and the leading cause of irreversible blindness in working age population *

Amman – In collaboration with top eye care and related macular disorder management hospitals, Bayer Middle East announced the launch of Alleye Home Monitoring Sponsorship Program to support Jordan’s ophthalmologists in the new era of Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) patient virtual care.

The sponsorship program enables ophthalmologists of partnering hospitals across Jordan to keep a regular track on the vision of their retinal disease patients. It will also help limit deterioration linked to diabetes and aging as well as reduce in-person ophthalmology visits.

“Alleye” is a mobile medical software application that helps detect and characterize metamorphopsia, a visual distortion in patients with Diabetic Retinopathy and Age-related Macular Degeneration.¹ According to a recent study,”Alleye” can detect the progression in macular disease with an accuracy of 93.8% and a false alarm rate of only 6.1%, which means that false alarm rates for the detection of progression in macular disease via home monitoring is low.²

The Bayer-sponsored home monitoring solution will help participating hospital ophthalmologists observe their retinal disease patients’ conditions, disease progress and allocated needs more closely than ever before. A study has shown that “Alleye” allows both patients and physicians to detect eye disease early ³ because when home monitoring tests came back positive in the course of the study, 80% of patients showed signs of anatomical progression in their next follow-up visit.²

The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive disruptions in the healthcare industry, requiring professionals to re-examine the traditional face-to-face patient-physician care model. It also highlighted the need to incorporate new models of digital healthcare solutions in ophthalmology, such as home-monitoring, to meet this challenge.⁴ With the Alleye Home Monitoring Sponsorship Program, hospitals can reduce patient clinic visits and monitor their eye health and disease state remotely with patients staying at home. Patients will be able to send their vision scan results to the ophthalmologist responsible for their case who would, in turn, analyze their results to determine if the patient’s condition is stable or has improved or progressed in a way that requires intervention.

Diabetic Retinopathy is the leading cause of preventable blindness in working adults ⁵. Out of 1961 patients with diabetes examined for a study at Jordan University Hospital, 64.1 percent had one form of diabetic retinopathy.⁶ Additionally, diabetes as a disease is forecasted to become even more prevalent than it is in the region in the coming years. The International Diabetes Federation Diabetes Atlas of 2017 showed that Diabetes cases in the Middle East are set to rise by 110% by 2045.7 

There is so much hope that the Bayer Alleye Home Monitoring Sponsorship Program could help change the lives of patients with Diabetic Retinopathy. Dr. Nakhleh Abu Yaghi, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Jordan and Consultant Ophthalmologist and Vitreoretinal Surgeon at the National Center for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Genetics in Amman, Jordan stated that, “Diabetic Retinopathy is very prevalent in Jordan and in the region, and especially Diabetic Macular Edema. There is a big burden in terms of addressing Diabetic Macular Edema as a primary cause for vision loss in diabetics and in the region. ‘Alleye’ will fill a big void in how patients monitor themselves and relate their disease progression to their caretakers, especially in our region where there are a lot of cases and where clinics are congested. Sometimes changes are subtle and sometimes changes can happen, but the patient would either ignore them or tolerate them and this can be detrimental to their vision.

Dr. Abu Yaghi further expressed his support for Bayer’s initiative saying that “The sponsorship of ‘Alleye’ is a promising achievement that would help us pick up disease early on, monitor patients more thoroughly and be more in touch with their needs without them having to be in the clinic all the time. We are very excited to try and see what is going to happen with the launch of the application in our institutions. Exciting times lie ahead, and this will make a paradigm shift.”

“We are enthusiastic about our collaboration with notable eye care institutions in Jordan that will no doubt help us reach thousands of patients and change their lives to the better. Our Alleye Home Monitoring Sponsorship Program underlines our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that help address the unmet needs of some of the most challenging and wide-spread eye diseases like Diabetic Retinopathy and Age-related Macular Degeneration,” said Samer Al Faqih, Managing Director, Bayer Levant and Commercial Area Head, Jordan and Lebanon.

About Diabetes and eye health If one is not able to keep blood sugar levels at check, high blood sugar can damage the capillaries in the retina, causing Diabetic Retinopathy. If blood sugar levels stay high, Diabetic Retinopathy will keep getting worse and more blood vessels will grow on the retina which are weak and can break open very easily, causing blood or fluid to leak into the middle part of the eye in front of the retina and altering vision.⁸

About Diabetic Macular Edema (DME)

The leakage of fluid into the retina causes swelling of the surrounding tissue (edema) including the macula, resulting in Diabetic Macular Edema which is the most common cause of vision loss in people with diabetic retinopathy.⁹ Diabetic Macular Edema is caused by a complication of diabetes called Diabetic Retinopathy which is a complication of diabetes that may be unnoticeable in its early stages, but affects a third of diabetic patients and is a primary cause of vision loss in adults between the ages of 20 and 65.¹⁰

About Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

An estimated 196 million people globally live with Age-related Macular Degeneration, 10.4 million of whom (5.3%) have moderate or severe distance vision impairment or blindness from more severe forms of the condition.¹¹

Age-related Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of loss of vision in people over 65 years of age. It is characterized by degeneration of the macula, the area of the retina responsible for central vision. Risk factors for Age-related Macular Degeneration include advancing age, family​ history of Age-related Macular Degeneration and cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and cigarette smoking. Age-related Macular Degeneration can be divided into two categories: nonexudative (or “dry”) Age-related Macular Degeneration and exudative (or “wet”) Age-related Macular Degeneration.¹²

About Ophthalmology at Bayer

Bayer is helping reduce the number of people impacted globally by visual impairment through innovative products and research. Retinal disease represents a major global health burden, especially as the world population ages and grows. Experts estimate that, globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment and that in at least 1 billion – or almost half – of these cases, vision impairment could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.¹³

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to help people and planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses.

At the same time, Bayer aims to create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2020, Bayer employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 41.4 billion Euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 4.9 billion euros.

For more information, go to www.bayer.com 

References

• Alleye Indications for Use, Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Form FDA 3881

• False alarms and the positive predictive value of smartphone-based hyperacuity home monitoring for the progression of macular disease: a prospective cohort study, Livia Faes et al., The Royal College of Ophthalmologists, 2020, page 1 and 6: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41433-020-01356-2.pdf [Last Accessed on 29.4.2021]

• Predicting the progression of macular diseases, Alleye.io, 2021: https://alleye.io/news/predicting-the-progression-of-macular-diseases [Last Accessed on 5.5.2021]

• Digital health during Covid-19: lessons from operationalising new models of care in ophthalmology, Dinesh V Gunasekeran et al.,The Lancet, 2021, page e124: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2589-7500%2820%2930287-9 [Last accessed on 5.5.2021]

• Diabetic Retinopathy, Ning Cheung, MD, The Lancet, 2010, page 124: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)62124-3/fulltext [Last Accessed on 5.5.2021]

• Risk Factors for Diabetic Retinopathy among Jordanian Diabetics, Muawyah D. Al-Bdour et al., Middle East African journal of ophthalmology, 2008: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49967527_Risk_Factors_for_Diabetic_Retinopathy_among_Jordanian_Diabetics [Last Accessed on 21.04.21]

• IDF Diabetes Atlas, Eighth edition, 2017, Chapter 4, page 66: https://diabetesatlas.org/upload/resources/previous/files/8/IDF_DA_8e-EN-final.pdf [Last Accessed 5.5.2021]

• Diabetic Retinopathy: Topic overview, Cham.org, 2020 https://www.cham.org/HealthwiseArticle.aspx?id=tf1308 [Last Accessed 10.5.2021]

• Macular Edema, National Institutes of Health - National Eye Institute, 2019, https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/macular-edema [Last Accessed 10.5.2021]

• Clinical Practice Recommendations for Managing Diabetic Macular Edema, International Diabetes Federation, 2019, Foreword, page 4: https://www.idf.org/index.php?option=com_attachments&task=download&id=2044:CPR-Managing-Diabetic-Macular-Edema-FINAL [Last Accessed 6.5.2021]

• World Report on Vision,The World Health Organization, 2019, Chapter 1, page 4: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241516570 [Last Accessed on 20.04.21]

• Common Causes of Vision Loss in Elderly Patients, David A. Quillen, M.D., American Family Physician, 1999, page1-2: https://www.aafp.org/afp/1999/0701/p99.html [Last Accessed 6.5.2021]

• Blindness and vision impairment, The World Health Organization, who.int, 2021: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment  [Last Accessed 6.5.2021] 

Contact:
Sami Joost
Head of Communications, Public Affairs & Sustainability – Middle East
Email: sami.joost@bayer.com 

For Medical Information: med-info.me@bayer.com
For Safety Reporting: pv.me@bayer.com
Find more information at www.bayer.com
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This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

© Press Release 2021