3 reasons to read AOA’s newest clinical practice guideline

January 14, 2025
WATCH the chair of the AOA’s Evidence-based Optometry Committee offer recommendations and clinical notes from Care of the Patient with Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma, First Edition.
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January’s National Glaucoma Awareness Month is the perfect time to review the AOA’s recently released evidence-based clinical practice guideline, Care of the Patient with Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma, First Edition. 

An estimated 112 million people across the globe are expected to have the condition by 2040. Glaucoma has been referred to as the “silent thief of vision” because it occurs without warning and is pain-free. 

The guideline, rigorously researched and authored by the AOA Evidence-based Optometry (EBO) Committee, was approved by the AOA Board of Trustees in October. It focuses on primary open-angle glaucoma. Doctors of optometry will be key in addressing the condition as its prevalence grows, says Carl Urbanski, O.D., chair of the EBO Committee. 

“The new guideline covers multiple new technologies and medications for diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma that were not developed or available when the first (consensus-based) guideline was published,” Dr. Urbanski says. 

But there is much more to the guideline, as Dr. Urbanski explains in a video.


A consensus-based glaucoma guide was first published by the AOA in 1994 with a revision in 1998 and review in 2001.

Interested in learning more about glaucoma care?

The AOA EyeLearn Professional Development Hub offers additional education and training webinars available as part of the AOA OD Talks Webinar Series, tailored for AOA-member doctors of optometry, and the Para Speaker Series for paraoptometric professionals. Enroll for a course that interests you below:

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