Bill Harvey: Wishing well

One of the advantages of hurtling towards one’s dotage is being able to reflect on which scientific breakthroughs in eye care have now become established practice, and which have yet to achieve the heady heights that were predicted when they were first discussed decades ago. Myopia management and optical coherence tomography are good examples of the former, while this week’s news reminded me how far others have yet to go.

I can remember a lecture from my undergrad days, in the 1980s, where it was suggested that advances in gene therapy would allow the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) by the end of the 20th century.