Features

Tools supporting myopia management

Bill Harvey starts a free trial of a new digital service from Ocumetra that should prove essential for everyone involved in myopia management

Figure 3: mEye Gauge; axial length without biometry

Ocumetra is an online company, based in Dublin, recently set up by consultant ophthalmologist Ian Flitcroft and optometrist Dr James Loughnan (figure 1).

The company has developed a platform with web-based data tools to make complex clinical information accessible to practitioners and provides the evidence base to inform critical treatment decisions, enabling patients with better communication and promoting better health outcomes for those at risk of blindness or myopia. 

  

Figure 1: Ocumetra was set up by an ophthalmologist and an optometrist

 

Ocumetra.com 

The Ocumetra website holds a wealth of information relevant to myopia management, including a comprehensive library of references to major studies and international reviews. Under the section named the Myopedia, these papers can be found alongside a whole host of resources and information packs. These are easily downloaded and aimed at both helping the clinician and the parents of any child for whom myopia management might be of benefit. All are freely available and well worth a look.  

By registering an account, you also gain access to the latest tools from Ocumetra. These include: 

  • mEye Guide; this app can easily be run on a computer, tablet or smartphone (figure 2, pictured right) and offers a wealth of information and tools that can be used by the clinician when discussing the benefits and predicted outcomes of myopia intervention with a child and their parents. 

 

  • mEye Gauge; this is a simple axial length estimator that will be of help to those without access to a biometer for axial length measurement. It works instead with a mathematical model to approximate axial length using the refraction and keratometry readings, with an average error of less than 0.25mm. This level of accuracy allows for identification of children with a greater than normal axial length, a risk factor for both myopic progression and myopic complications (figure 3, pictured above)

 

  • Refractogram; this offers graphical and numerical indicators of treatment efficacy (figure 4). These allow treatment decisions to be optimised for every patient and treatment benefits to be demonstrated to every patient

  

Key features of the mEye Guide

  1. Refraction centile graph. This indicates how each child’s refraction compares with other children of the same age and sex.
  2. Pre-myopia indicator. The centile graph is used to identify pre-myopes, children who are predicted to become short-sighted as they get older who may be targeted for early intervention.
  3. Projected adult refraction. The centile graph is used to predict how short-sighted the child may become as an adult without myopia management.
  4. Vision simulator. An interactive tool designed to illustrate to parents what their child’s vision is like now without their spectacles and what it could be like as an adult without myopia management.
  5. Treatment benefit indices. Intuitive infographic charts are used to illustrate the benefits of myopia management as a means to limit myopia progression and reduce the child’s risk of developing eye health complication due to myopia.
  6. Instant report sharing. The mEYE Guide report is intuitive and is designed to be shared with parents/guardians using a QR code, which they can immediately share with another parent/guardian. You can also immediately print the report or store it in an electronic record as a hyperlink or image.

 

Ocumetra and CooperVision 

Ocumetra is offering prescribers of CooperVision myopia management products access to a two-month free trial (extended free trial period) of mEYE Guide and mEYE Gauge followed by a 20% discount off the monthly subscription fee for the first year. This is well worth a go, and you can always cancel the trial before the free period ends. What is there to lose?