The campaign is pushing back against one of the most overlooked complications of diabetes
More than 40 million Americans are living with diabetes, and a significant number of them are quietly losing their sight without knowing why. A new public health campaign is trying to change that. Dr. Matthew Cunningham, a board-certified vitreoretinal specialist and partner at the Florida Retina Institute, is one of the voices behind All Eyes on DME, a campaign created in partnership with Genentech and diaTribe to address one of the most serious and least understood complications of diabetes.
What DME is and why it matters
Diabetic macular edema, or DME, is the leading cause of vision loss from diabetes. It affects an estimated 750,000 Americans, roughly 1 in 14 people living with the condition. Dr. Cunningham describes it as swelling that develops in the back part of the eye.
“The retina is what we need to see. It’s kind of the film in the camera, and the center of that film is called the macula,” he said. “When diabetes affects the retina, it causes leakage, and that leakage, when it affects the center of the retina, is called macular edema or DME.”
What makes DME particularly dangerous is that many patients have no symptoms at all until meaningful damage has already been done. Early signs, when they do appear, can be easy to dismiss. “There could be just mild blurring of the vision, and a lot of patients may attribute that to other reasons,” Dr. Cunningham said. “I always implore all of my diabetic patients to take vision changes extremely seriously.”
A disparity that demands attention
The campaign carries added urgency for communities of color, who are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop significant visual complications from diabetes. Dr. Cunningham points to a combination of factors driving that gap.
“It’s a multifactorial issue,” he said. “There are demographic reasons such as age, genetics and sex. There are non-demographic reasons such as smoking or environmental factors. And then there are social reasons, things such as social determinants of health, food insecurities and health literacy.”
He sees campaigns like All Eyes on DME as a direct response to that disparity, creating space for conversations that are not happening often enough in affected communities.
What the campaign offers patients
All Eyes on DME is built around practical, accessible resources for patients and their families. The campaign website at alleyesondme.com walks visitors through the disease, its symptoms, how to find a local eye specialist and how to make the most of that first appointment.
“It actually empowers them and their caregivers,” Dr. Cunningham said. “Whether or not they have diabetes or they’re at risk of developing diabetic macular edema, any type of education about what the diagnosis is and what symptoms to look out for helps patients take their vision health seriously.”
The one step every diabetic patient should take
For anyone living with diabetes who has never spoken to a doctor about their eye health, Dr. Cunningham’s advice is clear. Get a dilated eye exam.
“You need to know whether you have diabetic retinopathy, because you have to have diabetic retinopathy to develop diabetic macular edema,” he said. “Even if things are looking good, make sure that you are taking good care of yourself. Good glycemic control, good blood pressure control, good lipid control.”
The resources, the conversation and the path forward all start at alleyesondme.com.
