Month of CL hot topics

Last year’s lockdown tested everyone’s ability to adapt, but out of that adaptation sprung some unexpected positives such as Optician's series of late winter webinars.

Last February saw the country completely locked down and Optician took the opportunity to run a series of contact lens webinars over five consecutive nights. The webinars worked so well that this year, despite the UK having fewer Covid-related restrictions on physical events, Optician declared February Contact Lens Month (CLM) with webinars hosted each week on Tuesday night.

February 1 saw the hottest contact lens topic of the moment discussed as myopia made a welcome return, supported by the night’s sponsor, the extended depth of focus (EDOF) specialist Visioning Technologies Inc (VTI). Kicking off CLM, Optician invited Neil Retallic, president of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA), to spell out his presidency plans for 2022 and offer his view on myopia management. The invitation also gave Retallic the opportunity to discuss the BCLA’s Contact Lens Evidence-based Academic Reports (Clear), which will be showcased in Optician over the coming months through a series of CPD accredited articles. Following a wide-ranging interview with Optician's editor-in-chief, Chris Bennett, Retallic took questions from the audience and was joined, from the US, by VTI’s executive director of professional services, Dr Doug Benoit. Questions came in thick and fast with a lot of interest in the potential for myopia management using both soft lenses and orthokeratology. Retallic also discussed how contact lenses and spectacle lenses designed to manage myopia may be used together and how the internet supply of contact lenses might be controlled to ensure the correct care is provided, along with contact lens sales.