Career Pathways and Employment Experiences of Certified Nurse-Midwives Compared With Other Advanced Practice Registered Nurses in the United States.

Intravitreal therapy with vascular endothelial growth factor (anti‐VEGF) agents has revolutionized the treatment of retinal diseases such as neovascular age‐related macular degeneration (nAMD), diabetic macular oedema (DME) and retinal vein occlusion (RVO) (Pham et al., ; Schmidt‐Erfurth et al., ; Wong et al., ). Due to the chronic and recurrent nature of these conditions, anti‐VEGF treatment is often required over many years, placing a considerable burden on healthcare systems (Lin et al., ). The global prevalence of age‐related macular degeneration is projected to increase from 196 million in 2020 to 288 million by 2040, driven by population ageing and expanded treatment eligibility (Wong et al., ). In Europe, the number of individuals affected by nAMD is projected to rise substantially from approximately 67 million in 2020 to nearly 109 million by 2040. In addition to nAMD, both DME and RVO contribute substantially to the global burden of retinal disease (Teo et al., ). DME is estimated to affect approximately 4%–7% of individuals with diabetes worldwide, while RVO has a global prevalence of around 0.77% among adults aged 30–89 years, corresponding to nearly 28 million people (Heloterä et al., ; Song et al., ). Because these conditions require long‐term, repeated intravitreal anti‐VEGF treatment, the rising epidemiological burden translates directly into increasing demand for treatment capacity (Michelotti et al., ). Consequently, ophthalmology services—particularly in publicly funded health systems with limited specialist availability—are facing increasing constraints on clinic capacity and timely access to care (Teo et al., ). The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified task shifting as the delegation of specific clinical responsibilities from physicians to trained non‐physician health professionals as a strategy to expand healthcare capacity safely and sustainably (World Health Organization et al., ).