Reay H. Brown, MD, is the chief medical officer (CMO) of Sight Sciences, an eye-care technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif. Earlier this year, Sight Sciences launched the Ergo-Series of the OMNI Surgical System, which Dr. Brown helped to develop. Dr. Brown has been a practicing board-certified ophthalmologist for more than 30 years, specializing in glaucoma, glaucoma surgery and cataract surgery. He currently practices at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.

Ophthalmology Management: Can you discuss your role as CMO at Sight Sciences and how you got started in this role? Why did you move in this direction with your career and how?

Reay H. Brown, MD: In my role as CMO, I work with the company’s research and development team on making improvements to existing products and on new product innovation, as well as with Sight Sciences’ clinical and commercial teams.

I have been working throughout my career to develop glaucoma devices, as my core belief is that glaucoma is a surgical disease best treated with surgical intervention as opposed to traditional drug therapy. My partner on this journey to improve glaucoma surgical treatment has been my wife, Dr. Mary Lynch. Along the way, we developed some of the fundamental patents for trabecular bypass surgery — which has served as the foundation for the micro-invasive glaucoma surgery industry.

When Sight Sciences asked me to join the team on the industry side, I was excited because I would be helping to innovate new glaucoma technologies alongside a highly talented team. Sight Sciences CEO Paul Badawi was clearly a great leader who had already developed some transformative technologies that I thought would be fun to work with both as an innovator and a practicing surgeon. So, when Paul offered me the chance to join Sight Sciences as the CMO in 2018, it was an easy decision.

OM: Can you discuss the significance of having a practicing ophthalmologist and a product innovator as CMO? Why is staying clinically active important to you?

RB: It is personally rewarding for me to be involved in the patient care side of the business — seeing how products perform and identifying how these products can be improved. It is also helpful to talk with patients who may need glaucoma surgery, taking into consideration their needs, reactions and perspectives, since the transition from eyedrop therapy to surgery is a very big step for most patients.

For me, it is a great blessing to be able to help people in whatever kind of work we do, and I can’t think of anything more rewarding than helping patients preserve their vision by managing their glaucoma disease and removing cataracts. I am also very grateful to be part of an amazing team of medical specialists at Northside Hospital and Sight Sciences who do this work with me. It sounds obvious — or perhaps trite — but I enjoy having a purpose.

OM: Earlier this year, Sight Sciences announced the US launch of the Ergo-Series of the OMNI Surgical System. Can you talk about some of the technology enhancements that this system now offers and the benefits to surgeons?

RB: OMNI is an amazing technology that allows surgeons to perform a canaloplasty followed by trabeculotomy with a single device and a single incision. The Ergo-Series of OMNI has three new features. First is the improved design of the handle itself, which is more ergonomic, enabling surgeons to easily rotate and position the cannula tip within Schlemm’s canal with finger movements rather than wrist adjustments. Second is that the viscoelastic cartridge is now removable, making it easier for surgical preparation and clearance around the surgical microscope. Third is the new cannula tip design, which enables gentle and precise access to Schlemm’s canal while continuing to enable full 360° catheterization. These changes all improve the ease of use of OMNI.

These technology enhancements have been well received by our physician customers, and I have found them to be useful in my practice.

OM: How do you visualize glaucoma surgery evolving in the next 10 years?

RB: I have always believed that the treatment of chronic glaucoma should be surgical rather than medical, ie, eyedrops. Surgery offers glaucoma patients the possibility of an enduring solution without the side effects, compliance issues and ongoing expense of medical treatment. The popularity of MIGS demonstrates an increasing trend toward surgical strategies for glaucoma. I believe glaucoma surgery will one day “cure” glaucoma in that we will be able to control eye pressure without daily drops. It has always fascinated me that we may be able to control glaucoma before we even understand it, since figuring out how the complex biological outflow system works may be harder than controlling pressure itself.

My personal goal at Sight Sciences is to develop the very best surgical technology to control eye pressure and to stop people from becoming blind. OM