Provincial Retinal Diseases Treatment Program

The Provincial Retinal Diseases Treatment
Program provides drug treatment therapy for B.C. patients diagnosed with wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema and retinal vein occlusion.

The Provincial Retinal Diseases Treatment Program (PRDTP) was established in June 2009 to plan, coordinate, monitor, evaluate and fund retinal disease treatments. The program provides 100% coverage for a number of drugs for the treatment of retinal diseases when the drugs are prescribed and administered by retinal specialists.

PHSA manages the provincial program on behalf of the Ministry of Health by:

monitoring regional access to care,
optimizing drug utilization appropriateness and cost control,
minimizing drug wastage, and
facilitating data collection, monitoring, measuring, and reporting.

The standard of care for the treatment of retinal diseases is anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) drugs. These medications have been shown to help prevent vision loss and/or blindness, particularly in seniors.

No-charge drug coverage remains available through Program

Update for April 4, 2024

Patients as part of the PRDTP may have heard about program changes through some of their retinal specialists, including information that they will be responsible for drug and management or administration fees after April 1, 2024.

At this time, the Program confirms that the retinal specialists will continue to provide the same care to patients without interruption, utilizing the eligible Program medications at no cost to patients. Work continues to improve the model of care for patients with retinal diseases across BC.

February 23, 2024 program notice

Patients as part of the PRDTP may be hearing about program changes through some of their retinal specialists, including information that they will be responsible for drug and management or administration fees after April 1, 2024.

No-charge drug coverage remains available through the Provincial Retinal Diseases Treatment ProgramRead the full update

We are reassuring all patients the Program remains and will continue to provide coverage for eligible medications at no charge to patients.

There will be some changes to how the Program is managed, given that the retinal specialists gave their notification of withdrawal from participation effective March 31, 2024. While we commit to working with the retinal specialists to redesign the program, one aspect is very clear: the coverage for the drugs currently made available under the program will not end.

Patients should not be asked by their retinal specialist to pay to continue treatment with the same medication they are currently receiving at no charge under the program, or for any associated clinical fees.

The Ministry of Health will continue to cover the appropriate medications currently available under the program for patients suffering from wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), diabetic macular edema, or retinal vein occlusion.

We have a long-standing relationship with the retinal specialists of BC and remain committed to working with them to design an updated model of care that will align with existing care services available in B.C.

If you have any concerns or queries, you can reach out to the Program at psp@phsa.ca.

Our work

How we serve the people of B.C.

Through the provincial program, B.C. patients have access to anti-VEGF drugs when they have been diagnosed with one of the following three conditions:

Wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD)

wAMD is a chronic eye disease that causes blurred vision or a blind spot in your visual field. It’s generally caused by abnormal blood vessels that leak fluid or blood into the macula. The macula is in the part of the retina responsible for central vision. Early detection and treatment of macular degeneration may help reduce vision loss and, in some instances, recover vision.

Diabetic Macular Edema (DME)

DME is an accumulation of fluid in the macula from leaking blood vessels. To develop DME, you must first have diabetic retinopathy. Diabetic retinopathy is a disease that damages the blood vessels in the retina, resulting in vision impairment.

Retinal Vein Occlusion (RVO)

RVO is a blockage of the veins in the retina that carry blood away from the eye. The blockage can cause fluid to leak into the macula. The blockage caused by RVO cannot be reversed, but there are ways in which it can be managed, using treatments that may slow down the progression of vision loss and even improve vision.

B.C. patients who have been diagnosed with one of the above conditions have access to the following anti-VEGF drugs:

bevacizumab (Avastin)
ranibizumab (Lucentis)
aflibercept (Eylea)

This program also provides coverage for verteporfin (Visudyne) with photodynamic therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD).

New patients can access the treatments through a referral from a physician or optometrist to a retinal specialist. Retinal specialist services are available in all regional health authorities. Patients are urged to talk with the retinal specialist regarding the benefits and risks of the treatments.

Key partnerships

The retinal specialists participating in the Provincial Retinal Diseases Treatment Program collaborate with PHSA and the Ministry of Health to ensure the planning, coordination, accessibility, quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of the provincial program.

Quality Improvement

Program quality improvement

The Phase IV quality working group (QWG) has now come together.
The roles and responsibilities of the QWG were reviewed.
The supportive structures for this work were reviewed and include the QWG, an analytics sub-group who include additional biostatisticians and epidemiologists and who will complete work on analyses between meetings of the QWG, and external experts (out of province) who will provide review and advice regarding analytical procedures and results.
The draft preliminary study questions were reviewed and agreed upon.
Work done to date was highlighted. After reviewing the data extract, data intake and cleaning was undertaken. Initial linkage of the datasets occurred. Descriptive review of the data including preparing the data sets for analyses was completed.
The analytics sub-group will begin more frequent meetings to undertake analyses based on today’s agreed upon questions to bring back to the QWG in four weeks’ time.
Next QWG meeting scheduled for November 22, 2019.

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