Pearls from presidents
Six past presidents of the British Contact Lens Association will present their top tips for everyday contact lens practice at the Association's next one-day CET course.
Six contact lens CET points will be on offer to delegates attending the event in Leeds on April 27.
Chaired by Rosemary Bailey, the course will include discussion of topics currently in the news, as well as providing an update on clinical issues. Professor Nathan Efron will present new findings on the incidence of keratitis with current generation contact lenses, including silicone hydrogels worn for extended wear. The study is published this week in the April issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
Bailey will discuss the latest legislation affecting contact lens practice, with wide-ranging changes to the Opticians Act about to become law. Her presentation, 'I always do that check', will also cover case records and recording data.
The programme will open with comments on the UK contact lens market by Nick Loan and his analysis of the generic opportunities that the current market presents. Dispensing opticians Cheryl Donnelly and Ron Loveridge will cover the latest developments in contact lens care products and in dry-eye management.
Brains wired for colour
Scientists say they may have cracked the mystery of why some people see colours when they read letters or numbers.
It is estimated that one in 2,000 people experiences synaesthesia, a condition where the five senses intermingle, reported the BBC this week.
Researchers at the University of San Diego showed that a sample of people with synaesthesia had activity in the colour perception regions of the brain when they looked at letters.
A person might see red when they looked at a black figure five on a white background because the red colour perception area is stimulated at the same time as the number recognition area.
The research team said their findings gave support to the idea that the condition is due to cross-activation between adjacent areas of the brain responsible for processing sensory information.
They also believe this cross-wiring might originate in the womb due to a failure in the pruning of the nerve connections between the areas of the developing brain.