A primer on age-related
macular degeneration.
AMD is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in adults over 60. Roughly one in five people will develop it. When it is caught early, visual impairment can be avoided. When it is caught late, the damage cannot be reversed.
AMD is the slow death of the macula.
The macula is a small region at the center of the retina, responsible for the sharp central vision you use to read, drive, and recognise faces. In AMD, the cells in this region progressively stop working. The damage is gradual, painless, and goes unnoticed by most patients until central vision is already compromised.
There are two forms. Dry AMD accounts for about 85% of cases and develops over years. Wet AMD is rarer but faster, and can destroy central vision in weeks if untreated.
Central vision goes first.
AMD does not cause total blindness. It destroys the part of the retina you use to do the things sighted people take for granted.
Reading
Text in the centre of the page becomes blurry, distorted, or disappears entirely. Newspapers, prescriptions, and screens become unusable without magnification.
Recognising faces
Faces lose definition. A friend across a room becomes a blurred outline. Eye contact, expression reading, social cues all become harder.
Driving
Road signs at distance blur. Reading dashboard instruments while keeping the road in view becomes difficult. Most patients lose their licence within years of late-stage diagnosis.
Independence
Cooking, hobbies, banking, navigating an unfamiliar environment. AMD is one of the leading causes of loss of independence in older adults.
The damage cannot
be reversed.
Modern treatments can slow or stop AMD from progressing. Some can stabilise the disease for years. But none of them restore vision that has already been lost. Photoreceptors that have died do not come back.
This is why early detection matters more than late-stage treatment. Every month a patient is screened earlier is a month of central vision preserved.
A two-minute screen,
before the damage shows.
POLI is a clinical instrument that measures the functional signal of the macula. It identifies early-stage AMD years before structural damage is visible on the imaging tools used today. If your optometrist has a POLI, ask them about it at your next routine exam.
Tell us where you are.
We will tell you when POLI is near you.
POLI is rolling out to clinics across North America. Leave your information and we will reach out when a clinic in your area is set up.