# Real-world outcomes of proliferative diabetic retinopathy

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2022 · $252,644

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY:
Real-world outcomes of proliferative diabetic retinopathy
Vision loss from diabetic retinopathy remains the leading cause of preventable blindness in working-aged
adults in the United States (US). Advanced diabetic retinopathy is referred to as proliferative diabetic
retinopathy (PDR). In many patients, blindness associated with PDR can be prevented with appropriate and
timely diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, some patients at high risk for PDR are not receiving adequate
eye care. More knowledge is needed about PDR outcomes in a real-world setting, and the differences between
published study outcomes and real-world effectiveness. Electronic health records (EHRs) are used in nearly
90% of outpatient physician offices and can be a powerful tool for studying PDR in a real-world setting. The
goal of this proposal is to develop and validate EHR-based methods to improve outcomes in PDR. The study
aims are: (1) to classify patients with PDR in the EHR system using an automated method that incorporates
structured (e.g., diagnosis code, medications, labs) and unstructured data (e.g., clinical notes), (2) to predict
the progression of non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy to PDR using a forecasting model with time-varying
covariates, and (3) to determine the real-world effectiveness of treatments for PDR in a large nationwide eye
dataset. The study will utilize data from the University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) De-Identified
Clinical Data Warehouse, a de-identified EHR with over 1 million patients that has available eye exam
information, and the Intelligent Research in Sight (IRIS) registry, a nationwide comprehensive eye database
that includes data from over 15,000 eye providers in the US with over 1 million patients with PDR. The
innovative methods and tools from this study can be applied to other eye conditions to facilitate future EHR-
based clinical studies in ophthalmology. The candidate, Dr. Catherine Sun is an ophthalmologist whose long-
term goal is to study real-world clinical outcomes in ophthalmology by conducting EHR-based pragmatic
clinical trials and using large-scale EHR data. While she possesses the foundational skills, additional mentored
training and coursework in data analytics, biomedical informatics, biostatistics, and advanced clinical trial
design and implementation will help her reach her goals. Her outstanding mentorship team of primary mentor
Dr. Nisha Acharya and co-mentors Dr. Travis Porco and Dr. Joshua Stein, and the exceptional environment of
the Department of Ophthalmology and the F.I. Proctor Foundation at UCSF will support Dr. Sun’s development
into an R01-funded independent investigator.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10396571
- **Project number:** 5K23EY032637-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Catherine Qing Sun
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $252,644
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-06-01 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10396571

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10396571, Real-world outcomes of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (5K23EY032637-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10396571. Licensed CC0.

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