Instant prescription eyewear received a cautious welcome from a panel of eye care professionals at an Adlens roundtable event hosted by Optician last week.
Panel members all believed that there was a place in the market for Adlens' variable focus Hemisphere range of products, but felt that regulation regarding the spectacles was unclear.
The Hemisphere spectacles have fluid-filled deformable lenses which feature parallel sided chambers with one deformable surface filled with liquid - which is controlled by detachable adjustment barrels on the temples. Moving the barrel increases liquid pressure and forces the deformable surface to bow to create a plus or minus lens effect.
Much of the discussion focused on where the product sat in current legislation of optical supplies. Some of the panel believed that once the adjustment barrels were detached, the glasses could have limited appeal to patients as they would lose their 'unique selling point'.
David Cartwright, optometrist and former head of professional services for Boots Opticians, said registered practitioners would be on 'difficult ground' if they dispensed the Hemisphere with the adjustment barrels in place, an act which would go against ABDO and College guidance on dispensing glasses which were correct and to British standards.
However, some of the panel members offered a more positive response. 'With the right regulation and control in place, this has the potential to be a game changer and a serious asset to our dispensing armoury. Will it replace conventional glasses? Probably not, but we need to embrace this change as a profession and work with it. This will prevent the public misinterpreting our reluctance to be involved as protectionism,' said DO Adam Hall.
A full report on the debate will appear on January 18.