The German Joint Federal Committee requested manufacturers of machines for optical coherence tomography (OCT) to notify about their devices till 4th of October

On 6th of September, the Joint Federal Committee (G-BA) released announcement for manufacturers of OCT equipment to notify about their devices till 4th of October before G-BA makes the final decision about coverage of the procedure in out-patient settings within statutory health insurance. 

Previously, on 7th of July, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWIG) published the final report of benefit assessment of optical coherence tomography (OCT) for diagnosis and treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) and diabetic macular edema (DME). The aim of the report was to assess benefit in comparison to other diagnostic methods (including no diagnostic) in case of initiation therapy and treatment control of intravitreal injections with anti-VEGF and steroids in patients with wAMD and DME.

Advantages and disadvantages of application of OCT in the initial diagnosis of wAMD and DME in comparison to other diagnostic procedures are unclear due to no studies were identified for this purpose. Also, no benefit and harm were identified for OCT-controlled treatment with anti-VEGF in both patient population (DME and wAMD). However, it was noticed that there was a positive effect in relation to savings of cost on OCT-controlled Treat-and-Extent (T&E) and pro-re-nata (PRN) regimens due to a decrease of disease-related costs in comparison to fixed regimen of intravitreal injections in patients with DME.

See text of decision in German here.

See IQWIG report in German here.

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