Each September during Healthy Aging Month, the vision community joins to recognize International Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Awareness Week. This continued acknowledgment of AMD is important, as it is a leading cause of blindness and low vision in the United States and the developed world. It destroys central vision through proliferation of new blood vessels (“wet” or neovascular AMD) or gradual breakdown of cells (“dry” AMD or geographic atrophy) in and around the light-sensitive retina. Since it affects the macula—the central part of the light sensitive back of the eye called the retina—AMD vision loss makes it difficult to read, drive, and perform everyday tasks, thereby...
