Ernst & Young has chosen Dr. Alan Ulsifer, CEO and co-founder of FYidoctors, to be the winner of its Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 award for Canada.

 

This award recognizes Dr. Alan Ulsifer’s “vision of merging optometry practices into a single organization.” Since it was founded in 2008, FYidoctors has expanded to include over 100 practices across Canada.

 

“Dr. Alan Ulsifer’s achievements are no small feat,” says Colleen McMorrow, partner and national director, Entrepreneur of the Year. “His innovative vision of merging full scope optometric practices into a single entity — the first of its kind in the country — transformed Canada’s optometry industry. These kinds of innovative solutions that overcome a struggling economy take strong leadership and an even stronger team.”

 

This is the 19th year that Ernst & Young has honoured the country’s most impressive entrepreneurs. Winners are chosen based on a number of factors, including their vision, leadership, financial performance and social responsibility.

Sources:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1100359/calgary-s-dr-alan-ulsifer-of-fyidoctors-named-canada-s-ernst-young-entrepreneur-of-the-year-2012

 

A paper published in the Nature concludes that the eye of a fetus needs light exposure to develop normally.

 

This unexpected discovery “fundamentally changes our understanding of how the retina develops,” says study co-author Richard Lang, a researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “We have identified a light-response pathway that controls the number of retinal neurons. This has downstream effects on developing vasculature in the eye and is important because several major eye diseases are vascular diseases.” This discovery could lead to a better understanding of retinopathy in pre-term infants.

 

Until now, scientists have presumed that light plays a role in eye development only after birth.

 

The researchers were able to determine that it is important for a sufficient number of photons to enter the mother’s body by late gestation. They were also surprised to learn that these photons activate a protein called melanopsin directly in the fetus, not the mother, to help initiate normal development of blood vessels and retinal neurons in the eye.

 

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130116131405.htm

 

Researchers from Israel and California have demonstrated the importance of two proteins in maintaining a healthy retina. Their discovery could have implications for treating conditions of the immune, reproductive, vascular and nervous systems.

 

Retinal photoreceptors continually grow and elongate. If this process is left unchecked, they end up succumbing to toxicity and degenerate, leading to blindness. Fortunately, pigment epithelial cells “prune” the photoreceptors, at the same time clearing away many free radicals and toxic by-products generated during visual biochemical reactions.

 

In order to initiate the process of pruning photoreceptors, referred to as phagocytosis, the molecule Mer must play its role. This molecule, however, is activated by two proteins: Gas6 and Protein S. The researchers from the Israelian institute demonstrated in their lab that these two proteins are essential to activating the phagocytosis of retinal photoreceptors and thus protecting the health of the retina. Their findings were published in the journal Neuron.

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130106104534.htm

 

In 2004, the Government of Ontario stopped insuring eye exams for healthy adults under age 65. Since then, people with diabetes have been getting fewer eye exams, although they are still covered due to their condition.

 

Between 1998 and 2004, about 69% of people aged 40 to 65 with diabetes in Ontario had an annual eye exam. Two years after the Ontario government delisted eye exams from the provincial health insurance plan for healthy adults, this rate fell to 61%. It dropped again to 57% in 2010. In comparison, between 1998 and 2010, rates of cholesterol testing and blood glucose testing, both covered under provincial health insurance, remained stable.

 

“Our findings suggest that delisting worsened the quality of diabetes care in Ontario – even though the policy change was not supposed to affect people with diabetes,” according to Dr. Tara Kiran, who noticed the drop during her study, which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. This negative consequence could be explained by a misunderstanding by patients with diabetes of the new policy and by the possibility that some people may have been charged for exams that should have been free of charge.

 

 

 

PPG Industries, Inc. and Essilor International are in discussions over the future of Transitions Optical, in which they hold a 51% and 49% interest, respectively.

 

Although it cannot predict the outcome of the discussions, PPG showed its hand by raising the possibility of three options: the structure of ownership in Transitions could be modified, PPG could sell its shares to Essilor, in whole or in part, or PPG could buy Essilor’s shares. PPG has not ruled out the possibility that talks, which are expected to last a few more months, will result in the status quo.

 

Stating that the negotiations do not really impact the day-to-day operations of Transitions, Rick Elias, senior VP, optical and specialty materials for PPG Industries and Transitions Optical CEO, specified that PPG had announced that they were in discussions out of concern for transparency. “There’s a tremendous amount of things going on at PPG right now. We’re spinning off the commodity chemical business. There’s a lot of movement in the stock, so we want to make sure PPG is totally transparent.”

 

Sources:

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ppg-discussions-essilor-regarding-transitions-133000929.html

http://www.visionmonday.com/ViewContent/tabid/211/content_id/38546/catId/94/Default.aspx