With growing excitement in the field regarding myopia management, there couldn’t be a better time to hold our inaugural Global Myopia Symposium (GMS) on Sept. 25 and 26, 2020. The program committee—consisting of myself; Kate Gifford, PhD, BAppSc(Optom)Hons; Lyndon Jones, PhD, DSc; Shalu Pal, OD; and Jeff Walline, OD, PhD—is tremendously thrilled to bring this exciting new meeting to fruition. The GMS (www.gmsymposium.com ) is solely dedicated to addressing all aspects of myopia management in clinical practice today, given the latest technologies and evidence base supporting our clinical practice. This is especially true as we continue to see new diagnostics, devices, and therapeutics come to the market to help us continue to address myopia in children and teens today.

Perhaps one of the more exciting developments is the release of the Bifocal Lenses in Nearsighted Kids (BLINK) study results, just published on Aug. 11, 2020 (Walline et al, 2020). According to the press release, in this “three-year clinical trial of almost 300 children, a bifocal contact lens prescription with the highest near-work correction slowed nearsightedness progression by 43 percent when compared to single-vision contact lenses.” These results are not surprising, as a number of other studies—albeit not generally as large or well designed—have also shown similar results. This study comes on the heels of the results from earlier this year of another study showing that a uniquely designed spectacle lens (Defocus Incorporated Multiple Segments [DIMS] spectacle lenses) also slowed myopia progression over a two-year period (Lam et al, 2020).

As noted above, it is an incredibly exciting time in our field as it relates to our ability to control progressive myopia in our children and teens. We look forward to future developments along these lines, and we do sincerely hope that you join us at GMS in just a few weeks.

For references, please visit www.clspectrum.com/references and click on document #298.

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