Chris Bennett: Developments in the public eye

With the silly season well underway it’s good to see that the media is making some space for serious stories and that eye care is benefiting from the exposure.

While correspondents around the coast have been scanning the skies for psychopathic seagulls, medical correspondents have also seen stories falling from the sky.

There’s nothing more likely to get a health desk excited than the prospect of bionic body parts, and last week that wish came true. This was in the form of developments in an artificial retina by the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and Second Sight Medical products ‘Bionic eye treatment’ allows patient to see. Cataracts were also the subject of a national newspaper story which indicated that lanosterol can inhibit the build-up of proteins offering the possibility of cataract-preventing eye drops.