JANUARY IS OFTEN CONSIDERED the month of “resolutions.” One of the most anticipated resolutions for me is to increase my knowledge and acumen in specialty contact lenses to enhance patients’ vision and quality of life. Attending the annual Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS) in Las Vegas has certainly been one of my biggest highlights.

GSLS aims to educate and promote collaboration in a unique global community of eyecare practitioners to advance the field of specialty contact lenses for patients. It also epitomizes the excellence and innovation of specialty contact lenses in the industry. 

Through direct patient care, I have witnessed that specialty contact lenses serve patients beyond vision correction; the evolving innovations in orthokeratology, scleral lenses, corneal GPs, and hybrid lenses also truly transform patients’ vision and offer them a rewarding and enjoyable quality of life.

At GSLS, I was particularly intrigued and honored to have a meet-and-greet opportunity with the legendary Nathan Efron, AC, DSc, PhD, BScOptom. He embodies the essence of contact lens innovation and treatment through his influential research. I still vividly recall the “Efron Grading Scale” that I learned in optometry school. Meeting him in person was indeed a humbling experience for me.

During his keynote presentation, Professor Efron discussed the phenomenon of chronic, subclinical inflammation known as “para-inflammation” in the eyes during contact lens wear. Notably, para-inflammation spans a spectrum of severity that ranges from the “sweet zone” of low, subclinical inflammation caused by wearing conventional soft, corneal GP, and scleral lenses, to an abnormal, severe inflammatory state resulting from diseased corneal states such as neurotropic keratitis and post-keratoplasty.

While this may make contact lens wear seem counterintuitive and risky, Professor Efron argued that contact lens wear involves “non-damaging inflammation-mediated pathways. As a result, contact lens wear is considered ‘intrinsically inflammatory’” (Efron, 2017; Efron, 2018), which can be protective to the health of the cornea and the anterior segment of the eye.

This knowledge has utterly challenged the common belief that inflammation is notoriously bad for the eyes. It has also broadened the contemporary understanding of the nuances of specialty contact lenses and their positive impact on patients’ corneal health.

Having close to 1,000 practitioners, researchers, and delegates globally engaging in a packed four-day agenda remarkably showcased the deep passion and dedication of eyecare practitioners to the successful management of myopia and myriad ocular conditions via specialty contact lenses for patients.

Notably, I was impressed by the winners of the best poster in the research category: “Assessing Efficacy of a Dual-Focus Myopia Control Contact Lens for Faster and Slower Progressing Eyes” (Hammond et al, 2024). The result showed that using daily disposable dual-focus myopia control contact lenses can significantly halt myopia progression in fast-progressing eyes while also slowing myopia progression in slower progressing eyes. As a speaker and an attendee, I thoroughly enjoyed the positive and cultivating experiences at the GSLS.

Thanks to the tremendous support and recognition from the GSLS committee, I received the GSLS Rising Star Award this year. This represents an exciting chapter in my career as I continue educating colleagues and helping to enrich the field of specialty contact lenses for the next generations of practitioners. Through advocacy for research and education, GSLS helps propel advancements in clinical care.

Ready to elevate your resolutions? I invite you to join us at the GSLS in 2025!

REFERENCES

1. Efron N. Contact lens wear is intrinsically inflammatory. Clin Exp Optom. 2017 Jan;100:3-19.

2. Efron N. Rethinking contact lens discomfort. Clin Exp Optom. 2018 Jan;101:1-3. 

3. Hammond H, Bradley A, Arumugam B, Rickert M, Chamberlain P. Assessing Efficacy of a Dual-Focus Myopia Control Contact Lens for Faster and Slower Progressing Eyes. Poster presented at the 2024 Global Specialty Lens Symposium. 2024 Jan., Las Vegas.