NEWS spectrum
Device for Managing MGD Gains FDA Approval
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the second generation of a medical device that treats evaporative dry eye by liquefying and evacuating obstructions in meibomian glands.
LipiFlow Thermal Pulsation System (Tear-Science Inc.) includes a more robust graphical user interface and provides the ability for physicians to treat both of a patient's eyes simultaneously. The console incorporates an enhanced graphical user interface by controlling pressure and displaying the treatment temperature, pressure sequence, and treatment time remaining.
The new LipiFlow, which became commercially available in March, also allows practitioners to store a record of the treatment on the device and on electronic medical record servers.
Physicians currently using TearScience's first-generation LipiFlow will be upgraded to the new system.
| For the Record |
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| In the February 2012 article “Toric and Multifocal Scleral Lens Options” by Roxanna T. Potter, OD, FAAO, Table 1 states that Acculens does not have a multifocal scleral lens option. However, Acculens recently launched two multifocal scleral lenses: Maxim Plus and Comfort SL Plus. Information on these two new options is available in this month's Product Spectrum. |
Vistakon Celebrates With New Lens Launch
Vistakon and its Acuvue lens brand recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the first disposable soft contact lens by launching a new daily disposable contact lens for astigmatic patients. The 1-Day Acuvue Moist Brand Contact Lens for Astigmatism launched on March 1 at this year's Southeastern Council of Optometry (SECO) International Congress.
Along with the health and convenience benefits of wearing a fresh contact lens every day, 1-Day Acuvue Moist for Astigmatism features a proprietary Blink Stabilized Design to provide wearers with consistent, all-day vision. The technology also helps reduce chair time because the lens settles in less than one minute, according to the company.
The lenses are made using Vistakon's Lacreon Technology, a process that helps address dryness and end-of-day discomfort issues.
More details about 1-Day Acuvue Moist for Astigmatism are available in this month's Product Spectrum.
Holden Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Professor Brien Holden was honored as the recipient of the 2011 VOSH/International Lifetime Achievement Award during the organization's annual meeting in Boston. The award recognizes those who have made a global impact on visual impairment due to refractive error in their lifetime of work.
When presenting the award, VOSH/International Immediate Past President Dr. Greg Pearl noted that Dr. Holden was the first optometrist to serve on the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) Board of Directors. He convinced the board members to change the way they viewed blindness and visual impairment. Prior to Holden's involvement with the IAPB, they based their studies of the global prevalence of blindness upon visual acuity worse than 20/50 after refraction. Holden convinced them to also check uncorrected visual acuity as subjects presented to the study.
For the first time, new studies conducted in the developing world revealed that refractive error—the need for eyeglasses—is a major cause of visual impairment, second in prevalence only to cataracts. These studies clearly expressed the need to increase the availability of eyecare services in the developing world.
Prof. Holden also created the global institutions to affect the changes needed. He and others created the International Centre for Eyecare Education to teach basic refractive services and to develop nonprofit vision centers in the developing world. Additionally, he founded Optometry Giving Sight, which solicits funding for these projects from the optical industry, optometrists and their patients.
| Wave Lenses Now Approved for Overnight Wear |
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| Wave Contact Lens System's custom orthokeratology lenses are now approved for overnight wear as a design partner under the Bausch + Lomb's (B +L) Vision Shaping Treatment (VST) program. Wave's custom lenses are designed straight from practitioners' topographers to Wave's lathes. Each lens is cut edge to edge with hundreds of curves closely matching the corneal shape. In addition to orthokeratology, Wave's patented method is also used to design multifocal, keratoconus, toric, and semi-scleral lenses. Wave offers training, video clinical support, patient referrals, free topographers to users, and an online community of fellow fitters. |
Eyemaginations Launches Videos for AHAF, iPad App
Computer-animated 3D visuals providing an internal look at the eye's anatomy are now available on the American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF) website, http://www.ahaf.org. Visitors can watch 127 videos—in English and Spanish—that demonstrate a range of topics including the origins, progression, diagnosis, and treatment of eye diseases. The February launch was timed to help improve public understanding of eye disease in conjunction with Age-related Macular Degeneration Month and Low Vision Awareness Month.
The animations were created by Eyemaginations, Inc., a healthcare media company located in Baltimore, Md. The nonprofit AHAF funds research and provides public information on two vision diseases—macular degeneration and glaucoma.
Videos on macular degeneration are available at www.ahaf.org/eyevideos1, and glaucoma animations are available at www.ahaf.org/eyevideos2.
Eyemaginations also recently launched a new eyecare app for the iPad. Called the Luma Vision Simulator, the new app features on-screen drawing functionality and gives users the ability to markup images as well as view disease progressions and point-of-view scenes side-by-side on one screen. In addition, when used with Apple's Airplay, users of the new Luma Vision Simulator are able to share the iPad screen images wirelessly to a television when used with AppleTV. From the waiting room to the examination room, Eyemaginations says that the new app is designed to help patients better visualize their practitioner's explanations and better understand treatment options.
All of the Luma Eyecare Apps are available for download in iTunes. They are free to all Eyemaginations Luma clients and as a free demo for all others.
| Symposium to Explore Silicone Hydrogels |
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| “Silicone Hydrogel Lenses–Ten Years Later,” a scientific symposium sponsored by the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists, Inc. (CLAO) and Eye & Contact Lens journal (ECL), will be held at the Riverside Hotel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on May 4 to 5, 2012, just prior to the ARVO Meeting. The purpose of this Symposium is to review the developments in silicone lenses over the past decade and to present new research in the field. Contact lens researchers from around the world will be invited to participate in the event. Each expert presenter will submit a paper based on his or her presentation at the symposium and area of expertise. After the peer-review process, these papers will be published in a special issue of ECL. For more information or to register for the meeting, visit www.clao.org or call (877) 501-3937. The conference is supported through an unrestricted educational grant to CLAO from Vistakon, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. |
| INDUSTRY BRIEFS |
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| ■ The deadline for applications for 2012 Fellowship of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) has been extended to April 30 to allow members more time to apply. Since the scheme was launched in 2006, a total of 133 professionals from the international community of contact lens industry and practice have become BCLA Fellows following viva voce assessment at the annual BCLA Clinical Conference. ■ The Contact Lens Society of America (CLSA) will hold its 57th Annual Education Meeting at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa in Newport Beach, Calif. from April 25 to 28, 2012. With a theme of Improving Vision. Changing Lives., highlights of this year's meeting will include a two-hour COPE- and NCLE-approved Practice Management Symposium, a two-part general session on Management of Keratoconus and Other Ectasia, a three-hour Exam Review for the NCLE Advanced Examination, Fitting Kids with Contact Lenses, a session on hybrid lenses, and news on fitting patients who have presbyopia, among others. Visit www.clsa.info or call (800) 296-9776. ■ EyeDock, LLC, has released its newly redesigned online practitioner reference. After more than a year in development, the revamped eyedock.com has added a streamlined user login, improved compatibility with mobile devices, a GP lens database of more than 1,200 lenses, and an interactive refraction tutorial. ■ Merck recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Zioptan (tafluprost ophthalmic solution) 0.0015%, the first preservative- free prostaglandin analog ophthalmic solution. Zioptan is approved for reducing elevated intraocular pressure in patients who have open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. The approval was based on efficacy and safety results from five controlled clinical studies of up to two years in 905 patients. Merck anticipates that Zioptan will be available to customers later this month. ■ In the latest edition of Healthy Vision with Dr. Val Jones—a free podcast program supported by Acuvue Brand Contact Lenses and hosted by Val Jones, MD, CEO of Better Health, LLC—Dr. Jeffrey Anshel discusses how digital devices can cause eye discomfort, headaches, and fatigue. He identifies some of the common problems that he sees in how computer work stations are set up and offers advice on how proper monitor placement and lighting can help reduce many potential eye and/or vision problems. He also offers tips on what we can do to minimize or prevent eye strain discomfort and fatigue from computer or small device use. ■ An elephant in Amsterdam's Artis zoo recently made history after being fitted with a jumbo-sized contact lens following an eye injury in a procedure that lasted about an hour, according to a statement from the zoo. The 44-year-old Asian elephant Win Thida accidently scratched its left cornea while playing, and the eye was constantly watering. “Win Thida is the first elephant in Europe with a contact lens,” the Artis zoo said on its website. |
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