Optician news in brief

Sight Care Group this month represented UK independents at the European Ideas Forum in Berlin. Sight Care chief executive Paul Surridge and chairman Gavin Rebello heard of strategies adopted by European organisations to protect and promote the independent model. ‘Competition is fierce wherever you are in Europe, however what differentiates independents is a dedicated focus on clinical care, practice technology, practice aesthetics, product choice and value for money options,’ said Surridge.

A solar powered retinal implant capable of sending visual signals to the brains of rats has been developed by physicists and ophthalmologists at Stanford University. The researchers stimulated the rats’ retinal neurons and monitored how their brains reacted. They found that brain activity associated with the transmission of visual information returned to normal in rats with macular degeneration.