Perhaps not too surprisingly, my recent comments about the threat to science that Brexit poses stirred up some strong responses. As with much to do with this topic, opinions were equally divided and equally vehement. A Brexit birefringence in optics.
On matters European, it was good to see the recent announcement that former President of the College Dr Cindy Tromans has been inaugurated as the new European Council of Optometry and Optics (ECOO) President. Moving towards a more unified global competency-based recognition of the eye health professions can only be a good thing and I am convinced this appointment will help. Also, thanks to those of you who donated textbooks for our nascent Greek optometrist colleagues – a consignment will be heading their way in the coming weeks.
Two interesting research findings appeared recently. Firstly, a warning in this month’s Retina journal. Unindicated iron supplementation may be detrimental in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration.
As many do recommend multivitamins to those with maculopathy, knowing of the possible risk of supplements containing iron is probably worth knowing about. Iron is not in the AREDS 2 formulation.
Finally, an announcement was made that: ‘Optos and Amydis will work to provide an innovative medical solution to assist physicians and pharmaceutical companies discovering therapeutic interventions and address the large unmet clinical need for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s patients.’ It has been known for some time that scanning laser ophthalmoscopy can be used to detect amyloid deposition as it increases within the retina of those developing the dementia state often way in advance of symptoms of cognitive deficit. This is interesting, but look out for debates in the years to come about who will actually benefit from such early detection of this disease. Let us hope the focus is on patients and not insurance companies.