Right, first things first. If this piece upsets you, I will not be making an apology. If it angers you, I will not be saying sorry. We do not have time for any of that.
The time has come for us all to come together and take a definitive stance on myopia control.
It is a topic that everyone in optometry, and I really do mean everyone, needs to know about. It is the single biggest revolution in our profession for decades and all of us have a responsibility to ourselves and our patients to ensure we know the very latest thinking around this ground-breaking technique.
The BCLA has just finished a week of hugely successful ‘At Your Place’ roadshows, with Australian experts Paul and Kate Gifford presenting the latest research to audiences in Manchester, Birmingham and London.
Attendees are now fully ‘tooled-up’ with all the knowledge they need to really make a difference to patients’ lives. You don’t necessarily need the latest technology, MiSight lenses or Ortho-k capabilities. In some cases specs can be the best intervention. All you need is knowledge.
Ignorance simply isn’t an excuse. The information is out there, people know about it and the research stacks up.
Some say there isn’t enough evidence and we need stronger studies. Nonsense. I have it on good authority from the research fraternity that the studies are robust and diverse and all show the same results, with a certainty factor of at least 80%.
Myopia control is hugely effective and we should be using it but how we communicate this to patients needs looking at. We have to get comfortable talking about it, explaining it and implementing it.
We still do not know everything, but we know that doing nothing is no longer an option.
