By Sheila Morrison, OD, MS Vision Science
​Journal of Contact Lens Research and Science
Mission Eye Care

Myopia, or nearsightedness, occurs when the eye grows too long relative to the focusing power of the eye. When the eye grows too long, it is at higher risk for vision threatening diseases. The most commonly seen type of myopia progression (school-age myopia) occurs between the ages of about 5 to 16 years old. If detected early enough, the progression of school-aged myopia can be slowed by 30-60% in most children using specialized lenses or eye drops. 

Myopia Control has taken a recent shift from purely a research interest and passion to those within small global research circles…today it is approaching the standard of care for Optometric practice. All ODs in the United States and Canada are graduating with at least some basic understanding or awareness about ‘modern myopia management’. Curriculum has expanded at Optometry schools to include myopia control in 100% of our North American schools. The buzz I hear amongst academics and industry key opinion leaders, is a push to continue to increase this curriculum to ensure that we do give students adequate confidence and training related to all recommended therapies used in myopia control. 

By Peter Baker
​International Journal of Men's Social and Community Health
Director, Global Action on Men's Health

Men’s Health Week 2019, which starts on 10 June, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. It started in the USA in 1994 and is now also marked in Canada, Ireland, the UK, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. It may not yet be truly global but it is definitely an international event that has succeeded in significantly raising the profile of men’s health and almost certainly making a contribution to improved male health outcomes.

​By Dr. Stephanie Knaak
​Journal of Mental Health and Addiction Nursing

Stigmatization towards mental illnesses and addictions is a problem with deep roots and slow solutions. For the last seven years, I have worked closely with the Mental Health Commission of Canada in a research consultant capacity, conducting evaluation projects and other research on how to address this problem, mostly as it pertains to healthcare environments. Through this work, I’ve come to believe that to truly tackle the problem of mental illness and addictions-related stigmatization within healthcare, it needs to be addressed at all levels and throughout all sectors of healthcare. Also, it needs to be understood first and foremost as a structural issue – as something that is embedded into the very fabric and culture of healthcare institutions. 

By Dr. Jerry Robben
Journal of Dry Eye and Ocular Surface Disease

​As the new year starts I sense a change occurring in eye care that many of us have been eagerly waiting for. Dry eye disease is finally starting to get the acknowledgement and understanding that it deserves. This acknowledgement is beginning to span the eye care world, not just thought leaders and early adopters are turning on to the fact that dry eye is real and deserves treatment; but more and more, the every-day eye care provider is beginning to actively hunt for dry eye disease and treat it in more and more sophisticated ways. Intelligent discussion about dry eye is becoming more commonplace. Dry eye is not as regularly excused as just a waste-bucket diagnosis. The change is coming, where ECPs, who are not as well equipped to treat a dry eye patient, will actively refer that patient to a more specialized clinic for shared care, similar to patients with a severe corneal ulcer. The change is coming; we are not there yet, but it is starting. Take a look around the eye care world and you will see the signs.

​I have worn glasses since my math teacher noticed my inability to see the board in Algebra class in the 7th grade. It turned out that I had bad, irregular astigmatism as well as near sightedness—and it has only gotten worse since—with a minor eye-injury in my early adulthood, chronically dry eyes, and steadily deteriorating vision at distance. As a professional writer by trade, lacking the medical background or academic acumen for understanding my vision-related options, glasses had simply become a given facet of my life, and one that I’d never thought to question before. For me, it had always been a choice between glasses and eye-surgery, shutting me off from the significant benefits of lensing options. Only recently, some thirty years after my first pair of glasses, have I finally gotten around to trying scleral contact lenses—amazed now by the freedom they offer, and baffled that it took me so long to give them a try.