Health technology assessment of new retinal treatments; the need to capture healthcare capacity issues

The increasing prevalence of key retinal conditions [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ] and increasing utilisation of resource intensive treatments for these conditions [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], have led to concerns regarding the current and future resource burden on retinal services [ 9 ]. Any potential capacity shortfalls threaten the delivery of optimal care to patients and may have a negative effect on clinical outcomes [ 10 , 11 ]. As a result, approaches to increase the efficiency with which intravitreal injection clinics are run have been proposed and implemented [ 11 ]. While strategies such as these can provide gains in capacity, they are unlikely to be able to completely address the capacity issues. Innovation in ophthalmologic care, including the development of newer, more durable treatment options are therefore likely to represent a key approach to mitigating these capacity issues.