For the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, the Optician editorial team, along with a raft of expert judges, convened in London earlier this week to judge the entries for the 2024 Optician Awards.
Whether done online or in person, Optician Awards judging is always a refreshing experience. Whether looking at a new contact lens product or an entry for Optometrist of the Year, they are always inspiring and reaffirm one’s faith in the industry.
It was reaffirmation that was well-needed too because recent weeks have shown that the nefarious side of industry is still very much in play. Misinformation, questionable product efficacy and dangerous products have all caught the attention recently and got me wondering how and if it could all be policed.
A Facebook advert for an eye drop called Lumineye, with its ‘stem-cell innovation’, said it could improve vision without the person ‘stepping foot in an optometrist’s office’. Intrigued, I searched Lumineye on Google and to my pleasant surprise, the site had a 54% trust rating on scamadviser.com. My positivity was rather short-lived, however, as the basis for the rating came from factors such as a private domain registration and lack of reviews on popular sites. No clinical information about the product was present, which was surprising given the completely unfounded claims.
But this was a tiny website. Unsafe, unproven eyedrops wouldn’t turn up on the likes of Amazon, would they? Well, they do, and Optician purchased some of the Cataract Clear 4% N-Acetyl-Carnosine drops from the site, which arrived two days later with no information save for what was printed on the bottle.
In the US, Cataract Clear has been given the highest warning possible by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for non-compliant ingredients, prescription drug claims, no FDA registration and were described as a ‘Frankenstein eye drop’.
The industry has an opportunity to address a certain amount of this misinformation head on, but sites like Amazon really should be doing better.