‘Myopia is very much ingrained within the UK,’ Dr Andy Hepworth, professional relations manager at Essilor Ltd, told Optician as the company launched its Stellest lenses in the UK.
Any practice not speaking to patients about myopia needs to communicate with us at Essilor, he said, and look at raw data that highlighted that myopia was not just an international phenomenon.
‘It’s bubbling quickly. As a profession, we need to get our hands on it to support the patients who often, at a young age, seem to be starting to develop myopia. Even if it’s at a low level because the figures show that it will grow. We ideally need to support that particular child and manage their myopia,’ Hepworth said.
When asked if there were any excuses for a practice not providing myopia services, Hepworth thought they should be managing myopia. ‘Eye care professionals (ECPs) should be looking to manage it, rather than simply correcting myopia. As practitioners, we should be going beyond that as a duty of care,’ he said.
Hepworth noted that readers of Optician realised the prevalence of myopia was rising quickly. He said the best source of this information came independently from the Brien Holden Vision Institute (BHVI). ‘They’ve uncovered this big melting pot of myopia being massively on the rise. Prevalence is predicted to be more than 50% by 2050 in western Europe,’ he said.
Although the pandemic’s impact on myopia rates was unclear, Hepworth said reduced time spent outdoors was undeniably a factor but suggested it would be unfair to say increased screen usage during the pandemic was adding to its prevalence.
He said of all the available statistics, what surprised him the most was BHVI’s prediction for western Europe. ‘I’m a dispensing optician and back when I was in practice I assumed myopia was a complication for different geographies,’ Hepworth explained. ‘The further east you moved into to the Asian communities geographically, there was a bigger problem. But when you look at it in present day, it’s getting ever closer to home and unquestionably it is a complication for western Europe. That’s the key reason and the driving force for the direction where Essilor International R&D have gone with Stellest lenses.’
Tim Precious, managing director at Essilor Ltd, on the launch of Stellest
‘This much anticipated UK launch of our new generation spectacle lens will provide fresh hope for ECPs, parents and children as a game changing development in the fight against myopia progression. We all know that myopia is on the increase, and practices will undoubtedly be seeing more and more young myopic patients seeking long term solutions. When myopia is corrected through a single vision lens, this optical correction has no impact on slowing down eye elongation.
‘Stellest lenses now offer the dual benefit of myopia correction and control to help minimise the risk of related complications that can eventually lead to irreversible vision loss, and without any aesthetic compromise.
Tim Precious
‘Stellest lenses provide a solid solution for the ECP to recommend to children if the practitioner feels their myopia needs to be managed. It will set the standard for myopia management. Stellest lenses can be recommended to children as young as six and up to 16 years old, upon the decision of the ECP.
‘With more than 30 years’ experience in myopia control technology, we are committed to research and development in this fight, which requires innovation and a global awareness of the importance of preventing this visual disorder around the world.
‘The launch forms part of our on-going mission of improving lives by improving sight, while continuing our role to be the best business partner for independent practices.’
Slowing the signal
Stellest lenses have now been made available in the UK after it was first launched internationally in China, Russia and Singapore before arriving in Europe with launches in Italy and France, where Hepworth said the uptake has been quick.
He said: ‘Stellest is an incredibly advanced product. The key thing is that it corrects the end wearer’s myopia and it slows down myopic progression.’
Aesthetically, Hepworth said Stellest looked like standard single vision lenses that have been Crizal coated, which would make a big difference for children wearing the product.
‘They’ve been coated with Crizal Kids, which is much easier to clean than a traditional AR coated spectacle lens.’
Results after two years of an ongoing clinical trial showed Stellest lenses slowed myopia progression by 67% on average when compared to a traditional single vision lens when worn 12 hours a day.
‘That trial is still going on and we’re hoping that we’ll be able to show even more robust data as to how good Stellest lenses are at actually slowing down the myopic progression. Only time will tell but we’re very confident it’ll be positive,’ he said.
Stellest has been designed with Halt technology, which stands for highly aspherical lenslet target, and is a constellation of 1,021 aspherical lenslets. Hepworth said: ‘The whole point of Halt technology is that it has been designed to create this volume of unfocused light in front and following the shape of the retina. It’s that which is the slow down signal, which is hoping to actually stabilise and reduce the onset of myopia.’
Dr Andy Hepworth
Research and development teams at Essilor concluded that a volume of slowing down signal had a stronger effect on the slowing down of myopia progression than a surface signal. The aspherical lenslet designs and their arrangement create a targeted effect of volume of non-focused light in front of the retina.
Passport for progression
In terms of public awareness about what myopia is and how significant it was, Hepworth thought public understanding was not as significant as it should be. ‘Essilor realised we needed to go beyond providing a spectacle lens that reduced the progression of myopia and that we should highlight how important it is for them to go to a practice to regularly have their eyes tested,’ he said.
Essilor has supported practitioner communication with patients by creating tools, such as a myopia passport that will launch in March.
‘In order to maintain engagement with the child and the child’s parents, we’ll provide a passport with Stellest lenses. We hope the practitioner will use this particular passport with the child because they can use it to measure what has been happening to their myopia over six monthly visits.’
‘We’re hoping that particular child will see this passport, and the parents of that child, and they’ll be looking at this passport and realise the importance of them keeping coming back, with regular visits to that particular practitioner. We can then fill the passport in and the child owns their own passport and hopefully will continue that regular engagement with the practitioner.’
Other practice materials have been created to support independents when communicating with patients and marketing the product, as well as being part of its Take Two multi-pair offer. CPD on myopia management was also being developed by Essilor.
Essilor hoped that Stellest lenses would set the standard for myopia management and that it was committed to further research and development in the fight against myopia.
