Why Early Detection of AMD Matters to Us
Bill McPhee
Bill McPhee, the President and CEO of MacuLogix®, shares his personal story of why he joined the company and adopted its vision of eliminating blindness caused by AMD.
Video Transcript:
AMD can change quality of life if left untreated
My dad was a member of the greatest generation; a veteran of WWII and he was afraid of absolutely nothing. His greatest joy was driving to the Rockies with his family. My dad knew he had AMD but he never expected to go blind from the disease. But one morning he was in the shower and got soap in what turned out to be his good eye and closed it. He couldn’t see anything. He screamed for my mom, “Joan, I’m blind!” And that was the beginning of a descent into depression and a radical change in his quality of life.
80% of patients have irreversible vision loss before their first treatment
Once he was diagnosed with AMD the ophthalmologist asked my dad to come back on an annual basis and at his last appointment he did really well. But it’s hard to believe only 14 weeks later he was legally blind. Much to my surprise my dad’s case wasn’t unique. When you look at the literature roughly 80% of patients that present to a retina specialist for their first treatment have substantial irreversible vision loss. In fact, almost a third of them are legally blind in one eye.
Eliminate preventable blindness caused by AMD for a better future
When I was introduced to MacuLogix technology I was absolutely thrilled. Here was a tool that would allow optometrists and ophthalmologists to help families and patients avoid the losses that our family and my dad suffered. Frankly, at the end of it, I realized this is a company that had to be successful and I wanted to be its CEO. Our company has a bold and exciting vision. We want to eliminate preventable blindness attributed to age-related macular degeneration. MacuLogix empowers eye care professional by providing them and, very importantly, their team with the tools, training, and technologies needed to diagnose and manage AMD. Over the past 25 years, through your efforts in league with breakthroughs in technology, you have saved the sight of millions of patients with glaucoma. Let us partner with you now and do the same thing for AMD.