by Tamarreo Tatum
Haley Perry, OD, Class of 2009, is developing a patent‑pending corneal neurotrophic therapy that could change how optometry approaches dry eye disease.
“As a practice owner, my initial interest in dry eye was purely practical because it was affecting my refractions,” Perry said. “Tear film instability led to inconsistent measurements and a higher rate of remakes. Once I began taking dry eye more seriously and truly listening to these patients, my practice shifted.”
As her focus deepened, Perry began seeing more complex referrals and noticed a subset of patients whose severe ocular pain did not match traditional dry eye findings.
“Their pain was real, but it did not fit the typical clinical picture.” Perry said. “The closest parallel I could find was fibromyalgia, which is pain without a clear peripheral driver.”
Perry’s turning point came when she stopped defaulting to psychological explanations and instead chose to take patients’ symptoms at face value.
“I realized I was starting to do what many clinicians do, which is mentally categorizing these patients in a way that shuts down curiosity,” she said. “Once I caught that, I made a deliberate decision to ask a different question: What if this is real, just not explained by what we are currently measuring?”
Her clinical insights revealed a critical gap: While existing therapies address inflammation and tear instability, few options directly target localized ocular nerve pain. Motivated by this unmet need, Perry developed a patent‑pending therapy designed to address corneal neuropathic pain at its source.
Looking ahead, Perry hopes her work encourages clinicians to listen more closely to patients when symptoms do not align with clinical findings. While there is no guarantee that the research will lead to viable treatment, she believes it highlights the need for a broader understanding of ocular pain.
She advises that improving patient care means paying attention to what does not make sense in the exam lane. She notes that meaningful ideas often emerge from unresolved questions. Perry credits her education at the UAB School of Optometry while shaping the problem-solving mindset that guides her patient centered work today.