September 30, 2024
SANYA, Hainan Island, China – The International Myopia Conference (IMC) brought over 1,000 international and domestic researchers, academics, clinicians, and industry personnel together from September 24 to 28, 2024, to focus on the latest myopia research being conducted worldwide.
The four-day event is the one opportunity every two years for those immersed in research related to the diagnosis and care of myopic patients the world over to gather and share cutting-edge results on the causes, treatments, and both short-term and long-term effects of what has now become a pandemic disease.
This year, IMC was hosted by AIER Eye Hospital, which operates around 1,000 medical institutions throughout China and worldwide. The Sheraton Sanya Resort in Hainan Island, known as the Hawaii of China, welcomed 1,016 experts and scholars from more than 50 countries across six continents.
The 2026 IMC will be held at the University of Houston.
That tops the record-breaking 750 attendees at the last IMC, hosted by Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam in September 2022. While this year, 463 participants were from China, more (553) attended from other countries, with the United States leading the pack with 61 in attendance.
The conference featured more than 80 academic presentations and more than 400 posters by leading myopia researchers from throughout the world to share the results of their research on the causes of myopia and the ways in which its progression can be slowed one child at a time on a global basis.
IMC 2024 coincided with the release of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s new report, announced by Machelle Pardue, that calls for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to classify myopia as an eye disease that requires a medical diagnosis. Other conclusions she shared from the report were the need to look for new treatments, the need for consensus on treatment programs, and the need for long-term clinical trials at earlier ages.
Packed with Presentations and Posters
The four days were packed with presentations and posters in a variety of categories, including Public Health Strategies, Myopia Around the World, Risk Factors, Genes and Myopia, Animal and Experimental Models, Ocular Imaging and Biometry, Pharmacological Interventions, Accommodation and Binocular Vision, Optical Interventions, Myopia Complications, and more.
Lengthier symposia focused more closely in on:
- Public Health Strategies in Combating Pandemic Disease
- The Application of High Tech in Myopia and Vision Science Research
- Myopia Gene Data and Applications
- Retinal Mechanisms of Myopia – What Has Changed in the Myopia Retina
- Gene Mapping and Technologies
- Novel Ideas for Myopia Management
- Clinical Management for High Myopia and Complications
- Insights into Pathological Changes in High Myopia
- Biomechanics and Scleral Treatments
Light Treatments, A.I., and Time Outdoors
Using different wavelengths of the light spectrum to slow the progression of myopia was a recurring topic, but which one to use is yet to be determined. While red light is already in use in some parts of the world, its safety is still a concern. Lisa Ostrin’s presentation concluded that “caution must be exercised when using laser-based red-light devices.” Cyan, blue, violet, and even “bright” light were also discussed as potential treatments.
Executives of parent company EssilorLuxottica put their running shoes where their sponsorship is and joined in the final day’s 6am run sponsored by Oakley. (L-R) Gabbi Steenbekkers, Olga Prenat, Arnaud Ribadeau Dumas.
Other highlights of research presented during IMC 2024 were ways in which artificial intelligence can be used to diagnose the potential for high myopia in a particular patient, which concentration of low-dose atropine is most effective at slowing the progression of myopia, whether iris color impacts the use of low-dose atropine, and using an MRI to measure relative peripheral refraction.
Presenter Ziyi Qi concluded that artificial intelligence shows potential in detecting and predicting myopic maculopathy in children by accurately identifying high-risk individuals. Posters came to the same conclusion about using A.I. to predict myopia itself in children and adolescents and predicting the response and effect of atropine on adult high myopia.
All agree that time spent outdoors delays the onset of myopia. In fact, David Mackey observed a correlation with skin cancer. He said, “If your child is out in the sun enough to develop skin cancer later in life, they’ll have lower myopia.”
And The Winners Are . . .
Ian Flitcroft was selected as the winner to present the Chew Sek-Jin Memorial Lecture, named for one of the IMC’s founders. In his presentation, “Are We There Yet?” Dr. Flitcroft recounted the inaugural IMC meeting in New York in 1964 and lamented that single-vision glasses still remain the “commonest” form of “treatment” for myopia even though they do nothing to slow its progression.
New ideas introduced by Prof. Flitcroft included Spatial Frequency, the concept that artificial outdoor and indoor environments have spatial frequency characteristics that are similar to blurred images, and Anatomical Equivalent Refraction, the expected refraction based on one or more measured anatomical characteristics of the eye. (Watch his video below to hear him explain his “new idea for 2024” in more detail.)
Of the more than 1,000 attendees, 553 were from countries other than China. The United States represented the largest contingent (61), followed by the U.K. (52) and Singapore (48).
Based on voting by attendees, the most popular presentations were Sayantan Biswas on “Which is the most critical for myopia development: reading modality, text size, or illumination?,” S.C.M. Kneepkens on “MRI provides evidence that peripheral hyperopic defocus is a predictor for myopia progression,” and D.J. Van Hemert on “Interim analysis of compliance, side effects, and lifestyle in the MAD trial: a multicenter randomized clinical trial comparing 0.5% to 0.05% atropine for myopia in European children.” The most popular posters were those by Liyun Wang, Kavinkumaar P.K., and A.V. Mayagkov.
Lifetime Achievement Awards honorees were: Prof. Christine Wildsoet for Basic Research, Prof. Ian Morgan (Australian National University) for Clinical Research, Prof. Sally McFadden (University of Newcastle, Australia) for Academic Service, Prof. Qu Jia for Professional Education, and Prof. Yang Zhikuan for Clinical Service.
Chief Medical Editor Dr. Dwight Akerman and Editor-in-Chief John Sailer represented Review of Myopia Management at this year’s IMC.
2025 International Myopia Institute White Papers
The International Myopia Institute (IMI), the event’s founders, also shared the topics that members of the organization will be producing for their next set of white papers, which will be released in 2025. (Next year’s IMI white papers follow those previously published in 2019, 2021, and 2023.)
The topics and chairs of the upcoming 2025 report announced during the event are:
- Light and Myopia by Prof. Regan Ashby and Dr. Elise Harb
- Update on Global Prevalence by Dr. Timothy Frick
- Myopia as a Public Health Issue by Prof. Serge Resnikoff
- Instruments and Diagnostic Procedures by Prof. Deborah Jones
- Interventions for Myopia by Prof. Christine Wildsoet
- Global Practitioner Survey on Myopia Management Uptake by Prof. James Wolffsohn, the results of which he shared with IMC attendees
In addition, the IMI’s Dr. Nina Tahhan announced those leading the IMI 2025 Digest updates:
- Definitions and Classifications of Myopia by Ian Flitcroft, Xiangui He (Shanghai Eye Disease Prevention and Control Center), Kyoko Ohno-Matsui (Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan)
- Clinical Management Guidelines by Kate Gifford and Pauline Kang
- Adult Myopia by Mark Bullimore
- Binocular Vision by Nicola Logan
- Genetics by Virginie Verhoeven and Mats Voogelaar
- Animal Models by Lisa Ostrin and Timothy Gawne
- Risk Factors by Ian Morgan
Audience Voting Settles the Great Debates
The event climaxed with an exciting and entertaining debate, led by the IMI’s Dr. Tahhan along with AIER Hospital’s Prof. Wiezhong (Bruce) Lan, during which panelists competed head to head to sway the audience to take their side on controversial topics related to myopia management. Here’s what global myopia specialists collectively decided were the answers to the following:
- “Can short-term changes in the choroid in humans predict long-term eye growth?” NO, voted the audience, siding with debater Lisa Ostrin vs. Ranjay Chakraborty.
- “Should combination therapies be the standard of care to maximize treatment efficacy for myopia control?” NO, voted the group, agreeing with Padmaja Sankaridurg vs. Audrey Chia.
- “Is myopia more environmentally driven or genetically driven?” The Environment, said the audience, siding with Prof. Ian Morgan but giving Virginie Verhoeven the win because she convinced more people to change their mind from their pre-debate vote.
- Similarly, the always entertaining Mark Bullimore won the debate with Caroline Klaver when he got more audience members to change their minds to NO when asked, “Do emmetropic growth curves play a role in myopia management?” Ultimately, though, YES still got more votes. Both debaters felt the word “emmetropic” should have been removed from the question.
- “Should percentages be used to represent the efficacy of treatments or absolute values?” PERCENTAGES, said the audience, siding with Paul Chamberlain vs. Noel Brennan.
- “Does 0.01% atropine have a place as a myopia control therapy?” NO, said the audience along with Safal Khanal vs. Jason Yam.
- “Do we need to treat all young myopic patients or just those at recognized high risk of myopia progression?” The audience answered YES, siding with Nicola Logan, but Xiangui He won by converting more voters to her side compared with pre-debate voting.
- “Can we accurately predict which high myopes will develop pathological myopia?” NO was the answer, making Prof. Flitcroft the winner vs. Donny Hoang.
- “Must animal studies be done before clinical trials of myopia control therapies in humans?” NO, said the experts in the audience, giving Mingguang He the win over Machelle Pardue.
- And finally, when asked, “Is the central retina critical for eye growth regulation?” The audience said NO, agreeing with Frank Schaeffel (University of Tübingen, Germany) vs. Prof. Wildsoet (University of California, Berkeley).
The 19th International Myopia Conference’s sponsors included EssilorLuxottica, HOYA, CooperVision, Shamir, Euclid, Nikon, Beijing Internet Eyecare Technology Ltd., Zeiss, Younger Optics, Santen, Eyebright, and Baijirui.
Social events, meetings, and other activities rounded out the event for the 1,000 attendees who took the opportunity to participate in this every-other-year event. Organizers selected the University of Houston College of Optometry as the venue for the next International Myopia Conference, which will take place in 2026, and LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, in 2028.
For more from the 2024 International Myopia Conference, watch the following videos recorded at the event:
EssilorLuxottica’s Norbert Gorny
New Zealand optometrist Jagrut Lallu
Johnson & Johnson Vision’s Noel Brennan
Visioneering Technologies Inc.’s Juan Carlos Aragon
nthalmic’s Ravi Bakaraju
Ocumetra’s Corinna McElduff
Zeiss Vision Care’s Padmaja Sankaradurg
Professor Nicola Logan
Ian Flitcroft
Dublin optometrist Siofra Harrington
