COVER STORY ART.pdf 1 6/29/2023 3:58:03 PM
Cover Story
Seeing Eye to Eye
I
f you’re engaged in the vision space, there’s no hiding from the inexorable inundation of the field by all things myopia. From an anxietyridden wave of research declaring the arrival of the myopia epidemic to the relentless churn of new products purpose-made to lay the condition low, one thing is obvious: Myopia management is unavoidable in modern eye care.
The door is open for ODs and MDs to work together on a new myopia co-management paradigm by Matt Herman
Unfortunately, there is something to the hype. On average, 30% of the world is myopic, and this number is expected to increase to a staggering 50% by 2050.1 Asia is a hotbed for the disease, with prevalences measured as high as Singapore’s 90%2 being echoed across the region.
Myopia rates are on the march worldwide. There is, however, a growing arsenal of tools and techniques to combat the condition. Cooperation between optometrists and ophthalmologists is a perennially thorny issue, but working together might represent the best way to take advantage of the latest myopia management marvels. There is a path through the co-management morass, and three top specialists from across the globe detailed what that might look like.
Even in the United States, typically considered one of the more tame regions of the world for myopia, rates almost doubled in the three decades between 1971 and 2004.3 And these trends have likely taken a turn for the exponential with the reduction in time spent outdoors and increase in near work engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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COOKIE MAGAZINE | July 2023