AAO report: Up front focus

The differences in the way the US FDA and the European CE accreditation systems operate often make for interesting disparities in the launch of contact lenses and care systems. Often, great fuss is made about the launch in the US of a lens that may have been available to us, albeit often in another guise, for some time.

This year was something of an exception in that great publicity surrounded the US launches of the J&J Acuvue Vita (figure 1) and CooperVision’s latest lens for digital display users (figure 2), almost coincidental to their roll out in the UK.

There was also much focus on infection reduction and new ways of addressing the comfort challenge for lens wearers in the education sessions.