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Marking the importance of Truth & Reconciliation Day this month, our September-October issue of Optik delves into the complexity of meeting the eye health needs of Indigenous communities. We track three prominent ODs doing their part to improve eye health delivery. We also showcase how two Optometric Assistants in BC have merged their love of fashion with traditional indigenous artwork.
Dr. Trevor Miranda opines on the use of the term, “independent practice” in his debut article. On the optical front, expert lab techs give advice on reducing redos providing more efficient service. On the fashion front, Wendy Buchanan goes beyond the trends to explain the psychology and economics of fashion.
In a global effort to raise awareness on breast cancer, October has been designated as the Pink Month. The Pink Month is a month where efforts to educate those concerned about the disease, including early identification and signs and symptoms associated.
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#breastcancer #breastcancerawareness #cancer #breastcancersurvivor #cancersurvivor #cancerawareness #breastcancerawarenessmonth #mastectomy #chemotherapy #survivor #cancerfighter #breastcancerwarrior #health #breastcancerfighter #breastcancersupport #pinkribbon #pink #womenshealth #breastcancercare #cancerfree
How to you recognize National Truth and Reconciliation Day? Here’s how we did.
The September issue of Optik Magazine reflects our continuing contribution to raising awareness and understanding of the past injustices toward Indigenous peoples of Canada, as well as the challenges faced today.
To those that are outside of Canada, September 30th is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, first declared in 2021.
The day is also colloquially known as Orange Shirt Day to specifically recognize the legacy of the Canadian Indian residential school system.
It is a federal statutory holiday which provides the public the opportunity to reflect upon, recognize the intergenerational harm that residential schools have caused to Indigenous families and communities, and to honour those who have been affected by this injustice.
For us, it is also a day to recognize outstanding individuals within the eye care professional community that have made it part of their life mission to help tackle eye care challenges within Indigenous peoples.
And also, to celebrate Indigenous culture, art and beauty.
This is not a newor a “cause de jour” for Optik. We have featured these topics in the past and will do in the future.
Each time we do so, we gain understanding, and we hope to impart this to our viewers.
Please click through our carousel post to see some the features that we have created previously. (Links are in the Comments section.)
In the current issue, we explore the complexities of providing eye healthcare access to First Nations and Inuit peoples through the efforts of outstanding Eyecare Professionals who generously donate their time to do so.
Thank you:
Debbie Jones, Clinical Professor at UW and Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE), and Gurinder Jassal, Optometrist, founder of Outreach Optometry.
We also celebrate indigenous art and fashion from inspiring optometric assistants, Aunalee Boyd-Good and Sophia Seward Good, who bring Salish culture and art to the world of fashion through Ay LelumThe Good House of Design Inc.
#OrangeShirtDay #TruthandReconcilliaton
#opticalndustry #optometetry #opticians #OptikMagazine
Fighting Blindness Canada (FBC) is pleased to hear the announcement that Canadians are one step closer to accessing Luxturna® (generic name: voretigene neparvovec), a sight-saving gene therapy. The pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance has concluded price negotiations with the manufacturer for this groundbreaking treatment, which is aimed at Canadians losing sight due to inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) retinitis pigmentosa and Leber congenital amaurosis, caused by the RPE65 gene mutation. However, this treatment will not be accessible to all Canadians until one final step is completed: approving Luxturna for public funding through each province’s and territory’s health care coverage.
“Living with an IRD has a significant socio-economic and emotional impact not just on the individual but also their entire family,” said Doug Earle, President & CEO of Fighting Blindness Canada, citing a recent IRD Counts study that found the socio-economic impact for Canada with IRDs is $1.6 billion. Eighty percent of this cost is borne by the individuals and their families.
“Having access to a treatment that can help slow or stop progression of vision loss is life-transforming. This is the only treatment available for these individuals and we are asking Canada’s provinces and territories to recognize the hope Luxturna represents to restore sight and prioritize its access.”
“We’re calling on each provincial and territorial government to immediately sign the agreement to cover the cost of this treatment. It has been almost two years since Health Canada approved Luxturna, yet the individuals who desperately want this treatment still don’t have access to it and have been needlessly losing sight each day,” said Earle.
Fighting Blindness Canada is urging all Canadians to visit ApproveLuxturna.ca to send an email to their Premier and Health Minister to expedite access to Luxturna.
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#Fightingblindnesscanada
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. announced the launch of its newest innovation, ACUVUE® OASYS MAX 1-Day contact lenses and ACUVUE® OASYS MAX 1-Day MULTIFOCAL contact lenses for presbyopia.
Designed with a combination of new technologies to help meet the needs of digitally intense lifestyles: TearStable™ Technology and OptiBlue™ light filter. TearStable™ Technology is designed to maximize tear-film stability and lock in moisture for exceptional all-day comfort.The OptiBlue™ light filter has the highest-level blue-violet filter in the industry at 60% to reduce light scatter for exceptional visual clarity, day to night. In addition, ACUVUE® OASYS MAX 1-Day lenses block 99.9% UVA rays and 100% UVB rays.
“Life has changed, post-pandemic. With more time spent on digital devices, we designed these contact lenses by listening to patients and eye care professionals’ feedback to address lifestyle requirements and help prevent dry and tired eyes from becoming normalized,” said John Buch, OD, Senior Principal Research Optometrist, Johnson & Johnson Vision. “Our new ACUVUE® OASYS MAX 1-Day contact lenses help reduce discomfort by providing visual clarity with new technologies to filter blue-violet light, which comes from many sources, including digital screens and travels in short wavelengths and scatters more which can lead to eye discomfort and quality of vision.”
For patients with presbyopia, ACUVUE® MAX 1-Day OASYS MULTIFOCAL contact lenses provide crisp, clear vision at all distances and in all lighting conditions, as well as all-day comfort. The lenses combine the same two powerful technologies – TearStable™ Technology and the OptiBlue™ light filter – plus PUPIL OPTIMIZED DESIGN technology, which tailors 100% of parameters to pupil size variations across both age and refraction compared to less than 2% for the leading competitor. This is the same technology that is available across all ACUVUE® Multifocal contact lenses.
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#accuvue #Johnson&Johnson
Transitions Optical has published new multicultural resources to help eye care professionals (ECPs) better serve their diverse patient base. A white paper and education course both titled “Fostering a More Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive Optical Industry in Canada” are available online.
The new education course is designed to help empower ECPs to create a welcoming environment for a diverse patient base by understanding the different risks and eye health needs of the three largest and fastest-growing Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) populations in Canada: Asian Canadians, Black Canadians, and Indigenous Canadians. The course also highlights key findings from Transitions Optical’s recent eye health needs and preferences survey for multicultural patients and provides tactical steps that ECPs can take to be more inclusive in their practice.
The course will be offered live in conjunction with the Opticians Association of Canada’s Western Conference on October 15 in Burnaby, BC. It will also be available through the OAC’s On-Demand library following the Conference.
The “Fostering a More Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive Optical Industry in Canada” white paper was created based on the consensus from a roundtable discussion featuring a panel of ECPs that took place earlier this year. Findings from the roundtable highlight the need for tailored care and continued education.
ECPs can access the new white paper at Transitions.com/en-canadapro/education-product-knowledge. The education course will be available online after the Opticians Association of Canada’s Western Conference on October 15.
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#transitions #education #equity
Evolution is inevitable in any industry, and the Canadian optical industry is no different. In the past few years, consolidation and competition have increased. Many of the ophthalmic labs used by clinics and retailers have made the decision to move their manufacturing from domestic to international.
Following its acquisition of Allied Lab in 2008, in 2015, FYidoctors moved its lab into a new state-of-the-art facility located in Delta, British Columbia. Since then, FYidoctors has grown significantly; today the lab is manufacturing an impressive 12,000 to 13,000 pairs of glasses per week. In the past three years alone, approximately $10 million have been invested in the facility, becoming a true differentiating factor for FYidoctors. Under one roof, the lab manufactures the highest quality lenses and coatings using the newest and most innovative technologies available.
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#fyidoctors
