Blog - Page 840 of 876

June 22, 2015May 19, 2026

CCLR Update Spotlights Sports Vision in Practice

Contact Lens Update Sports Vision Spotlight

Issue 26 of Contact Lens Update, published by the Centre for Contact Lens Research (CCLR), University of Waterloo, features sports vision as an emerging specialization area. David Mann, from the Faculty of Human Movement Science at VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, reviews a European study of 157 Olympic-level athletes in a variety of sports, giving clues as to how clinicians might help customize their approach to optimize on-field performance for a given sport.

Kristin Dalton, Assistant Professor and creator of the Sports Vision Clinic at U of Waterloo in 2014, provides practical advice in her editorial overview on how to start up sports vision services in practice.

Dr. Dalton, and the new sports vision clinic were featured in the March 2015 issue of Optik (see page 32). In reference to Sports Vision as a rewarding part of clinical practice, Dr. Dalton concludes that, as in the beauty of sport, “anything is possible”.

Visit Contact Lens Update online.

June 19, 2015April 24, 2018

Waterloo Student Wins $100,000 Grant to Develop Smart Contact Lenses

The Thiel Foundation announced last week that its class of 2015 Thiel Fellows includes University of Waterloo student Harry Gandhi, co-founder and CEO of Medella Health, a Canadian start-up which plans to develop glucose-monitoring “smart” contact lenses to aid in diabetes management.

Recipients of the Thiel Fellowship receive $100,000 over two years and only students under 22 are eligible.

The search for continuous, non-invasive glucose monitors for the estimated 387 million diabetes sufferers worldwide is a hot topic among researchers and technology companies. Last year Alcon and Google announced that they were forming a partnership to develop glucose-monitoring contact lenses, as well as an accompanying mobile app, though experts estimate that smart contact lenses are at least five years away from being a commercial product.

Further information: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/peter-thiel-fellowship-awarded-to-4-canadian-entrepreneurs-1.3102670

UPDATE: Medella Health closes $1.4 Mio Seed Capital Financing.

June 18, 2015April 24, 2018

Google Patents Biometric Contact Lens

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, Google has been awarded a patent on several designs and implementations of contact lenses capable of scanning the wearer’s iris and using it as a biometric “fingerprint”.

One of the patented contact lens designs includes multiple sensors that measure the light filtered through the iris, circuitry which can communicate with remote devices, and a power source. This information would be used for the purposes of authentication and identification.

Iris recognition scans are considered by security experts to be more accurate and difficult to fake than fingerprints, but current iris scanning technology is unable to distinguish a real eye from a high quality photograph.

Further information: http://www.healio.com/optometry/contact-lenses-eye-wear/news/online/%7Bc8f5d97a-d495-4c2a-a4e1-a2e978102b4e%7D/google-patents-contact-lenses-with-iris-scanning-technology/

June 17, 2015April 24, 2018

Drug Delivering Contact Lenses Improve with UV-blocking

Researchers at the University of Florida, found that UV-blocking contact lenses protected photosensitive drugs from degrading and showed that contact lenses could be an effective way to deliver photosensitive extended-release drugs.

The research team loaded UV-blocking and non-UV-blocking contact lenses with dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory steroid medication that is sensitive to UV light, and measured the amount of drug which remained after exposing the contact lenses to a UV lamp.

After 20 hours less than 1% of the dexamethasone in the UV-blocking lens had degraded, compared to 85% degradation in the regular contact lens. A third contact lens loaded with vitamin E, which has UV-absorbing properties, had 30% of the drug degraded. While the results suggest that both UV-blocking lenses and Vitamin E prevent degradation, the UV-blocking lenses did so more effectively. The researchers point out, however, that Vitamin E also improves drug stability and release profile.

Further information: http://journals.lww.com/optvissci/Abstract/publishahead/Photoprotection_and_Extended_Drug_Delivery_by_UV.98710.aspx

June 15, 2015April 24, 2018

UWaterloo Researcher Warns Inappropriately Applied Eyeliner Causes Vision Problems

A study completed by Dr. Alison Ng while at Cardiff University found that eyeliner applied to the inner eyelid can contaminate the tear film and may cause vision problems including irritation, blurred vision and infection.

The research team observed that after just five minutes glitter eyeliner applied to the inner lid margin resulted in 15 to 30% more particles in the tear film than when makeup is applied outside the lash line only.

The waxes, oils, silicones and natural gums present in makeup can cause redness and discomfort when they enter the tear film, particularly for contact lens wearers, but the greater concern is that old makeup harbouring bacteria can lead to infections. Dr. Ng, now a fellow at the University of Waterloo, recommends, “If you thoroughly sharpen your pencil eyeliner before each application and get rid of the stuff that’s stuck to the end, you’ll have a fresh tip which can help prevent infection. With a twist-up eyeliner, cut some off the end before each use.”

Further information: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/study-finds-eyeliner-application-may-cause-eye-problems

CCLR Update Spotlights Sports Vision in Practice

Waterloo Student Wins $100,000 Grant to Develop Smart Contact Lenses

Google Patents Biometric Contact Lens

Drug Delivering Contact Lenses Improve with UV-blocking

UWaterloo Researcher Warns Inappropriately Applied Eyeliner Causes Vision Problems

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