A clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute in the United States suggests that contact lenses are the ideal treatment for babies who undergo cataract surgery.

 

Babies who undergo cataract surgery, like adults, are generally implanted with an artificial lens in their eye. This is to ensure the best long-term vision and reduce the risk of infection, compared to an external contact lens.

 

However, it is difficult for surgeons to judge the correct focusing power required when implanting the lenses in babies, as their eyes are still developing and growing. Also, there are more postoperative side effects for babies than there are for adults.

 

The trial, involving 114 newborn infants across 12 clinical centres, showed that there was no difference in visual acuity between the two methods after a few months or after four years. The group that had received artificial lenses, however, developed more postsurgical complications.

 

“For most infants with unilateral cataract, contact lenses are a better option than an artificial lens,” says Dr. Scott Lambert, the study’s lead investigator.

Source:

http://eyewiretoday.com/view.asp?20140311-contact_lenses_recommended_for_babies_after_cataract_surgery   

 

Zyloware has expanded to Canada by opening up the subsidiary Zyloware Eyewear Canada ULC. Sandra Laramee will be its national sales director.

 

The US company will begin by selling directly in Ontario, with the intention of selling nationwide, thus possibly replacing current Canadian distributors.

 

“After carefully reviewing the territory, our team has selected the brands and styles best suited for the Canadian market,” said Zyloware’s CEO, Christopher Shyer. “We are especially eager to start working directly with the Canadian optometrists that have been purchasing our frames for years.”

 

For now, all of the products available for the selected brands on www.zyloware.com are available to the Canadian market.

 

The new sales director for Canada, Sandra Laramee, has been working in the optical industry for 30 years.

Source:

http://blog.eyesurf.info/?p=13232

 

 

Roshan Thomas, a Vancouver optometrist, and Zeenab Kassam, a Calgary nurse, were among those killed in the hotel attack in Kabul, Afghanistan last Thursday.  

 

In all, nine people, including two young children, were slain when four teenaged gunmen entered the heavily secured Serena Hotel, considered one of the safest spots in the Afghan capital.

 

A mother of three, Roshan Thomas, 60, had worked on humanitarian projects for the past decade as part of the Aga Khan Development Network. Mrs. Thomas and her husband, an ophthalmologist, had provided eye care in the country for five consecutive summers in the 1990s. She had also founded the Sparks Academy Kabul (Omid-e-Afghanistan, which translates as “Afghanistan’s hope” in the Dari language), a school attended by children from different ethnicities and religions.   

 

“I spoke to her a few hours before the incident,” said her son, Karim Thomas, in an interview to the Globe and Mail. “She was doing the work that she loved. She had had some exciting things happen with the education program and she was in very good spirits.”

 

The education program founded by Mrs. Thomas began with 50 students in 2003 and has grown to 900 in six different centres today.

 

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/friends-pay-tribute-to-vancouver-woman-killed-in-kabul/article17613186/

 

The new rules of conduct for Ontario optometrists will take effect April 15, 2014.

 

The new regulation will change the rules concerning conflict of interest, advertising, relationships between optometrists and opticians, and patient access to eye care and prescriptions. The changes are listed in a document released by the Ontario Association of Optometrists (OAO). (http://www.collegeoptom.on.ca/images/pdfs/PM__COI_Guidelines_FINAL.pdf)

 

The OAO is pleased with the implementation of these new changes, particularly the removal of restrictions that prevented optometrists from associating with opticians. “Doctors of optometry will now be able to employ opticians and, further, practice with anyone including optical corporations, as long as the doctor of optometry practices as an independent contractor,” said president Farooq Khan.

 

The College of Optometrists of Ontario also approves the changes. “The public of Ontario will benefit from more options when seeking eye care now that several of the restrictions that prohibited optometrists from working in association with opticians, have been removed,” said Paula Garshowitz, registrar at the College.

Source:

http://www.collegeoptom.on.ca/index.php/resources/news/209-new-professional-misconduct-regulation-including-conflict-of-interest-provisions-effective-april-15-2014

http://www.healio.com/optometry/regulatory-legislative/news/online/144a303c-1e20-4448-9982-39b769ed03da/new-regulation-in-ontario-may-increase-collaboration-between-optometrists-opticians  

 

 

Researchers from Stanford University have developed inexpensive adapters that enable a smartphone to capture very precise images of the eye.

 

The adapters allow anyone with minimal training to take a picture of the front and back of the eye, to share this image securely with other eyecare professionals or to download it to the patient’s electronic record. One of the developers of the device, ophthalmologist Robert Chang, likens it to “Instagram for the eye.”

 

Such a device would be extremely helpful in providing eye care in remote locations or in disadvantaged regions where paying for leading-edge medical equipment is a challenge. This could also accelerate diagnoses in emergency rooms.

 

“Imagine a car accident victim arriving in the emergency department with an eye injury resulting in a hyphema. Normally the physician would have to describe this finding in the patient’s record with words alone. Smartphones today not only have the camera resolution to supplement those words with a high-resolution photo, but also the data-transfer capability to upload that photo securely to the medical record in a matter of seconds,” explained Dr. Chang.

Source:

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140307111056.htm