Action Against Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Four founders, the Macular Society, Blind Veterans UK, Fight for Sight and Sight Scotland Veterans, identified Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) as one of the biggest challenges to sight loss in the developed world, and have joined forces to create the specialised charity Action Against AMD (AAAMD). AAAMD’s focussed mission is to find and enable convenient, affordable, and accessible solutions to stop AMD in its early stages, before it causes sight loss. To achieve their mission, AAAMD is stimulating the expansion of research efforts by additional organisations and sectors to look at the neglected aspect in the fight against AMD: the early stages of the disease. Very little is known about the early-stages of the disease, usually diagnosed in its late, sight-threatening stages, and data on both healthy and diseased eyes are urgently needed. That is why AAAMD is a partner in INSIGHT, one of seven pioneering national data research hubs, which is using AI to turn routine eye imaging data into an asset focused on diseases such as AMD and glaucoma, but with wider applications, including diabetes and dementia. Through AAAMD, the ODI is supporting INSIGHT to involve and engage the public, patients and other stakeholders in data stewardship. It is one of various partners AAAMD has been working with aiming at making anonymised, large-scale ophthalmic data available for patient-focussed research, under transparent and ethical governance. AAAMD has also established partnerships to scan millions of scientific papers, clinical trials information, and additional datasets relating to age-related macular degeneration with a view to identifying potential gene targets and treatments. The team is now collaborating to test candidate drugs for repurposing. Learn more about the work that is now underway as part of Action Against AMD at https://www.actionagainstamd.org/