The Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospital of Alexandroupolis is the reference clinic in the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace for ophthalmic care provision. Every year thousands of patients visit our clinic, both for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. However, apart from the provision of care, our Department is a training center both for residents and consultant ophthalmologists in the surgical correction of cataract and presbyopia.

Presbyopia is an age-related visual disorder that results in a progressive impairment of near vision capacity. It is common for emmetropic populations above 40 years old; eventually almost everyone will demonstrate a variable amount of near-vision deterioration. Presbyopia symptoms include blurry vision when targeting at near objects and fatigue when reading, especially in suboptimal lighting conditions. Taking into account the constantly increasing life-expectancy, conservative estimates suggest that by 2050, about 1.8 billion people will experience presbyopia-associated symptoms. Moreover, since working and social norms have been modified heavily with the usage of computers, tablets, and smart phones, presbyopia imposes significant limitations to the patient’s productivity and reduces quality of life to a great extent.

In order to address the integrated needs of presbyopic patients, we introduced, in 2016, the Presbyopia Research Program of Democritus University with the following distinct objectives:

• a) identification of the exact pathomechanism of presbyopia
• b) quantification of presbyopia’s impact on productivity and quality of life
• c) development of novel conventional and surgical options and techniques
• d) development of diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines
• e) development of methods for improvement of the overall visual capacity of the presbyopic patient.

The program follows the mandates of the Declaration of Helsinki for biomedical research, it is supervised by the Bioethics Board of the University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, and managed by the Special Account for Research Funds (SARF) of Democritus University of Thrace (ELKE ID 82038).

Specifically, Presbyopia Research Program of the Democritus University is comprised by four distinct arms:

1) Diagnostic Arm

The diagnostic arm of the program attempts:

• a) to identify the fundamental pathomechanism of presbyopia
• b) quantify its impact on the productivity and quality of life
• c) explore associations with personality types and social roles

2) Surgical Arm

The surgical arm of the program attempts to develop novel surgical techniques for presbyopia correction. Among others we develop and evaluate: laser-assisted surgical options, digital-marking assisted techniques, combined multifocal implantations, and corneal rings and inlays.

3) Educational Arm

The educational arm of the program offers official educational and training programs (including hands-on and near-hands-on surgical sessions) for cataract surgeons, optometrists, and nurses.

4) Disease Management Arm

The disease management arm of the program attempts to develop a contemporary disease-management program for presbyopia. Among others, primary objectives of the disease-management arm are:

• a) to identify the optimal time-point for surgical correction,
• b) to develop reimbursement policies for presbyopia,
• c) to provide optimal services / products with translational potential to the market.

Collaborations / Fellows

We foster national and international collaborations on presbyopia with universities and institutes. Moreover, we support research attempts by independent investigators or groups of fellows. Therefore, we encourage anyone with special interest on presbyopia to contact us and present his/her research objective and fundamental methodology. We are willing to support all feasible research projects on presbyopia under the hospices of the Medical School of Democritus University.

For further information please visit the Presbyopia Research Program website:
http://presbyopia.i-surgery.org