As part of its multifaceted leadership in helping more eye care professionals (ECPs) embrace myopia management, CooperVision is sharing insights from three new scientific abstracts supported by the company. One explores myopia rates in fast and slow progressors, while two others concentrate on optical interventions for residents of China with myopia. All were presented as scientific posters at the 2023 Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS).

“Our findings play a key role in further advancing myopia control and management across the entire global eye care community,” said Elizabeth Lumb, BSc (Hons) MCOptom, FBCLA, Director of Global Professional Affairs, Myopia Management, CooperVision. “Comprehensive, trusted, and valid diverse research like this is crucial as the industry and professionals work together to make myopia management the standard of care in practice.”

Dual Focus Contact Lens Successfully Slows Myopia Progression in Both Fast and Slow Progressors (Kwan J., et al) compared eye growth rates prior to and during myopia control treatment with the CooperVision MiSight^® 1 day contact lens, applying data from the company’s multi-year, international MiSight^® 1 day clinical trial. Faster growing eyes wearing single vision contact lenses during the first three years of the study slowed the most when they were moved into the MiSight^® 1 day treatment lens. Slower growing eyes during pre-treatment effectively stopped progressing, which means that both fast and slow progressors benefit from MiSight^® 1 day contact lenses for myopia management.

Short-Term Clinical and Visual Performance of Dual-focus Soft Contact Lenses in Chinese Children (Chen S, et al.) investigated the clinical and visual performance of MiSight^® 1 day throughout one month of daily wear. Researchers evaluated 36 children ages 8-12 in the Guangzhou area who used the lenses on average for 12 hours per day, six days per week. They demonstrated wearing schedule compliance and successful independent handling at one week and one month. The children reported good visual performance (comparable distance and near high contrast visual acuity at one week versus a single vision lens) and improved overall satisfaction over one week and one month of wear.

The Effect of an Overnight Corneal Refractive Therapy Lens on Vision and Corneal Curvature in Chinese Myopes (Jiang J, et al)^[6] focused on adult and child myopes in China, further validating the effectiveness of reducing myopia using CooperVision’s Paragon^® CRT 100 orthokeratology lens, which has been widely fitted there since 2017. The 12-month, four-site study enrolled 254 subjects ages 8 to 43 with both eyes having myopic refractive error of -4.00DS or less, astigmatism of 1.50DC or less, and no corneal abnormalities. The Paragon CRT^® ortho-k lens was found to temporarily reduce myopia effectively in a large majority of Chinese patients, demonstrating significant improvements to clinically relevant levels of both uncorrected distance visual acuity and manifest refraction spherical equivalent. Significant levels of improvement were observed in both uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) and low levels of myopia (MRSE) after one week, and were sustained throughout the follow-up period.

Visit https://na.eventscloud.com/website/35541/2023-posters/ to read these poster presentations in their entirety.

Click HERE for the full press release.

The World Council of Optometry (WCO) and Alcon officially launched a new practical tool to help with the diagnosis and treatment of dry eye disease concluding an initial series of complimentary global dry eye disease education initiative online events.

Videos are now available on demand at dryeye.worldcouncilofoptometry.info. The WCO Alcon Dry Eye Wheel, developed by world-renowned educators Professors Jennifer Craig, Lyndon Jones, and James Wolffsohn, is an at-a-glance, interactive tool designed to easily reference the three pillars of mitigation, measurement, and management, and to be accessible for broadest possible use.

World Council of Optometry President-Elect Dr. Sandra S. Block, O.D., M.Ed., MPH, FAAO, FCOVD said, “We are deeply grateful to Professors Craig, Jones and Wolffsohn for their amazing insight on the diagnosis and treatment of dry eye disease during this initial series of webinars. The WCO Alcon Dry Eye Wheel will allow clinicians to integrate mitigation, measurement and management of dry eye disease into practice immediately.” 

Alcon Global and US Head of Professional Education and Development Carla Mack, OD, MBA, FAAO, FBCLA said, “The WCO Alcon Dry Eye Wheel is a fantastic tool that aims to deliver a great deal of knowledge and an easy-to-apply approach in eye care practices worldwide.”

From the University of Auckland (New Zealand), Head of the Ocular Surface Laboratory within the Department of Ophthalmology Jennifer Craig, Ph.D., FCOptom, FAAO, FBCLA, FCLS explained, “The tables within the wheel represent different complexities within what we do. The bronze outer ring shows the simplest, most common things to do to mitigate dry eye disease that are easy, don’t require additional equipment and can help the majority of affected individuals. The silver ring represents slightly more complex versions of the disease that we may be managing and describes basic tools and skills we can use to help at this level, and the gold bullseye reflects the smaller, more complex group of patients that may be in need of more advanced techniques for dry eye disease management.”

Lyndon Jones, DSc, FCOptom, FAAO, Director of the Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE) in the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of Waterloo (Canada) said, “Once you’ve performed one or more management strategies, the level of dry eye disease hopefully changes and it’s important at that point to re-evaluate where the patient now lies on the spectrum, so that the treatment and mitigation strategies can be adjusted accordingly. The concept of using the wheel from the outer to inner layer, keeping things simple wherever possible, and then continually following it around is a great way of thinking about how to manage patients with dry eye disease.”

Aston University (UK) School of Optometry and Audiology Head James Wolffsohn, BSc, MBA, Ph.D., FCOptom, FAAO said, “As a duty of care, we need to manage our patients’ dry eye disease at whatever level we’re able to, keeping in mind that only a small number of patients will need the highest level of practice.”

The dry eye disease education initiative website also features other evidence-based, practical tools that eye care professionals can use regardless of their geographic location or available resources.

WCO and Alcon partnered to develop the dry eye disease education initiative to raise optometrists’ understanding of dry eye and deliver resources on practical management. 

Click HERE for the full press release.