AAO highlight: Looking ahead to 2026

This year in retina is almost completely in the rearview mirror, capped off by a busy American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) annual meeting. AAO 2025 was as much about the people attending as the data presented, and this, the largest ophthalmology gathering, was a good opportunity to check the pulse of our field with numerous friends and colleagues. There were a handful of major takeaways this year that informed us where we will be going in 2026 and beyond.

1. Real-world data have arrived. With the combination of maturing markets for the second-generation anti-VEGF agents and complement-modulating geographic atrophy therapies, along with widespread digital data collection and registries, we are learning much more about how we are doing in real life for patients with common retinal disease.

2. The late-phase tyrosine kinase inhibitors and gene therapies have all transitioned to prelaunch mode as we await the phase 3 neovascular macular degeneration clinical trial results for 5 of these technologies, which are projected to be available in 2026 and 2027. We may finally meaningfully move the needle on durability for millions of patients, and we have some clarity for planned clinical trials in diabetic macular edema.

3. The era of monotherapy for common exudative retinal disease is coming to an end. We saw late-stage anti–IL-6 data presented at AAO 2025, and we are seeing earlier-stage science with multitargeting from multiple companies aiming at the Wnt signaling pathway, inflammatory cytokines, and/or more potent Ang2/Tie2 modulation, along with VEGF inhibition. This makes clinical sense, as most other complex disease states are treated with multitargeting.

4. Retina is ready for artificial intelligence (AI). Operational technologies from RetinAI, Amaros AI, Bitfount, and others are demonstrating strength in retrospective data, with more on the way. AI may soon help us efficiently enroll clinical trials, interpret the volumes of real-world data with incredible speed and customization, and help us make the best clinical decisions for patients. It is time to try prospective generative AI in our field.

David A. Eichenbaum, MD, FASRS

Eichenbaum is the director of research at Retina Vitreous Associates of Florida in Clearwater and St Petersburg, Florida.