May 26, 2022
(L-R) Baskar Arumugam, David Hammond, and Paul Chamberlain
SAN RAMON, Calif. — Baskar Arumugam, BOpt., PhD, FAAO, and David Hammond, BAppSci(Microbiol), BAppSci(Optom), PhD, COT, have been named to new positions in CooperVision’s myopia control and management sectors.
Dr. Arumugam has been named Senior Lead Clinical Scientist, and Dr. Hammond has been appointed Lead Clinical Scientist on the CooperVision myopia research and development team. Both play integral roles in research and product development at the leading edge of myopia control,* including in-depth analysis of seven years of data from the MiSight 1 day clinical trial, the longest-running soft contact lens study among children.
Drs. Arumugam and Hammond co-authored works related to the MiSight 1 day study’s six- and seven-year findings. This includes the peer-reviewed paper “Long-Term Effect of Dual-Focus Contact Lenses on Myopia Progression in Children: A 6-year Multicenter Clinical Trial” (Chamberlain P, et al.), now published in Optometry and Vision Science. Their paper “Myopia Progression on Cessation of Dual-Focus Contact Lens Wear: MiSight 1 day 7 Year Findings” (Chamberlain P, Arumugam B, et al.) and companion poster (Hammond D, Arumugam B, et al.) also received widespread attention following the 2021 American Academy of Optometry Meeting.
“Our immense body of foundational and clinical research into myopia control and management has ignited global interest and action to take on this disease, energizing the eye care community, public health officials, and parents,” said Paul Chamberlain, BSc (Hons), CooperVision Director of Research Programs. “We are well into our second decade of leading this field and investing even more resources to advance the science, evidence-based products, and clinical guidance. Baskar’s and David’s deep knowledge and insights are central to these efforts.”
Arumugam’s and Hammond’s contributions join those of international researchers who have been studying the technology behind MiSight 1 day since the early 2000s, including the team† honored with the Garland W. Clay Award for their work on “A 3-Year Randomized Clinical Trial of MiSight® Lenses for Myopia Control” (Chamberlain P, et al.).
Arumugam joined CooperVision in 2018, following several years on faculty at the University of Houston, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship. He earned a PhD in myopia and ocular growth from the University of Melbourne.
Hammond joined CooperVision in 2020. Previously, he lectured on optometry and vision science at Flinders University and served as tenured faculty at Deakin University. He earned a PhD in optometry, as well as molecular biology and microbiology from Queensland University of Technology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley.
* Indications for Use: MiSight 1 day (omafilcon A) soft (hydrophilic) contact lenses for daily wear are indicated for the correction of myopic ametropia and for slowing the progression of myopia in children with non-diseased eyes, who at the initiation of treatment are 8-12 years of age and have a refraction of -0.75 to -4.00 diopters (spherical equivalent) with ≤ 0.75 diopters of astigmatism. The lens is to be discarded after each removal.
†Paul Chamberlain, BSc (Hons.); Sofia C. Peixoto-De-Matos, MSc; Nicola S. Logan, PhD; Cheryl Ngo, MBBS, MMed; Deborah Jones, BSc, FAAO; Graeme Young, PhD, FAAO
