Bayer Middle East launches Alleye Home Monitoring Sponsorship Program in collaboration with top eye care

Cairo – 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 Egypt’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 Egypt to keep a regular track on the vision of their retinal disease patients. It will also help reduce 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 According to a 2011 study that used a sample of 1,325 patients from Egypt with a mean age of 49 years, Diabetic Retinopathy was found in 20.5% of patients, 82% of which were not aware of the hazards of diabetes mellitus for the eyes.⁶ Diabetes as a disease is estimated to become even more prevalent than it is in the region during the next two decades. 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 

Dr. Mohamed Moghazy Mahgoub, Professor of Ophthalmology and Consultant Vitreoretinal Surgeon, Ain-Shams University agreed that Diabetic Retinopathy is on the rise. He indicated, “From findings in my practice and the practices of fellow colleagues, I can say that the problem of Diabetic Macular Edema may be superior to the problem of Age-related Macular Degeneration in Egypt. A good reason to think so is that the Middle East has a rising population of Diabetes in general, according to numbers from the National Diabetes Association, and that Egypt is already a population of more than 100 million.”   

Dr. Mahgoub added that the Alleye Home Monitoring Sponsorship Program “is a great initiative from Bayer. In order to maximize the efficiency of this program and help patients benefit from the tool, doctors should use this app with patients who are digitally oriented. 

Given that patients are able to use the application properly, I think it will be well-received by physicians as we are always trying to learn new ways to bring our patients back to treatment or follow-up. We are always enthusiastic about making the patients themselves interested in the disease and able to understand the importance of being monitored by their doctors or monitoring themselves regularly, so they won’t let themselves deteriorate before seeking help.” 

“The Alleye Home Monitoring Sponsorship Program demonstrates how committed Bayer Middle East is to deliver 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. We greatly value our collaboration with prominent eye care institutions in Egypt that will no doubt help us reach thousands of patients and change their lives to the better,” said Dr. Samer Lezzaiq, Managing Director at Bayer Egypt, LLC Commercial Area Head – Pharma.

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. 

© Press Release 2021