editor’s perspective

Get Ready for Something Big

BY JASON J. NICHOLS, OD, MPH, PHD, FAAO

You are probably all familiar with the English proverb, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” There has been significant discussion this past year about innovation in contact lenses. And when I say innovation in this context, I am not referring to incremental advances in technology—I mean true innovation, such as contact lenses that contain chips or other technology that offers something unique.

And next year just might be the year when those discussions transform into something more concrete. Perhaps we will see new contact lens technology that monitors health status, or technology that dynamically changes refractive index to adapt to patients’ visual needs at any one particular point in time. Maybe we will witness a regulatory agency move forward with clearing a contact lens to be used for myopia control.

In whatever forms it takes, this new contact lens technology is and will be big—bigger in ways that we have not observed in this industry for a very long time.

With 2015 coming to a close, I think that we have a lot to be excited about in terms of future advancements in the field of contact lenses. I am hopeful that we will see some of these new innovations in contact lenses come to fruition in the near future. While necessity is a motivator for innovation, we play a role in the process as well. As comedian Milton Berle said, “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”