Feb. 20, 2020
By Dwight Akerman, OD, MBA, FAAO
Chief Medical Editor, Review of Myopia Management
While it is the professional responsibility of eye care professionals (ECPs) to discuss myopia management options with their patients, most have not incorporated myopia care into their practices to any significant extent. That needs to change.
Myopia, considered a pandemic by many public health experts, has traditionally been treated with corrective lenses, a treatment that does nothing to slow its progression. Unfortunately, it is true that the vast majority of ECPs still prescribe single vision interventions to young myopes. Myopia management techniques are not being prescribed early enough in a child’s ocular development to deliver their optimum effect. Now is the time to address the myopia pandemic proactively . . . especially in North America.
There is good reason to slow the progression of myopia. Once considered a simple refractive error with few, if any, long-term eye health consequences, myopia increases the risk of serious, sight-threatening complications, including retinal detachment, myopia macular degeneration, and glaucoma. Unfortunately, though, eye care professionals and parents of myopic children still often take a wait-and-see approach to myopia management.
So, why have many ECPs not incorporated myopia management into their practices to any significant extent? It’s not because they don’t want to; most do. It’s primarily due to a lack of knowledge about how to integrate pediatric myopia management into a primary care optometric practice.
That knowledge, which ECPs need to start managing myopia, is now available and easily accessed through THE Myopia Meeting™. ECPs have the opportunity to educate themselves about ways to slow the progression of myopia and how to incorporate the techniques to do so into their practices by attending one of THE Myopia Meetings scheduled at various locations throughout the United States.
Introduced last year and presented to sold-out audiences on the East Coast and the West Coast, THE Myopia Meeting is returning with one event held during each quarter of 2020 in various locations throughout the United States:
- March 15 in Bellevue, Washington
- May 3 in Morristown, New Jersey
- August 30 in Los Angeles
- October 18 in Chicago
Each event will consist of six hours of COPE-approved CE lectures provided by renowned myopia experts. Be sure to attend THE Myopia Meeting if you are among those ECPs who want to incorporate myopia management into your practice or if you already have but still want to learn about the latest advances.
Click here for THE Myopia Meeting curriculum: revieweducationgroup.com/myopia
