News

PBA redesigns Web site

Prevent Blindness America (PBA) has launched a redesigned Web site at www.preventblindness.org. The site offers a variety of new features including adjustable text sizes to assist those with visual impairment, as well as a simplified layout for faster navigation. It also allows social media users to use the ?share? feature to instantly link articles and content to their own Facebook and Twitter accounts.

With the approach of the school year, Prevent Blindness America (PBA) has declared August as Children's Eye Health and Safety Awareness month, and is encouraging parents to ?make sure every child takes the test that may help them pass all the rest.?

Glick dedication Friday

The Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute at the Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine will be dedicated Aug. 19. Located on the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, the 77,000 square foot building features 15,000 square feet of research space and 14,000 square feet of clinic space.

The memoir of David Paton, MD, founder and former medical director of Project Orbis (now known as Orbis International), is now available.

Treasure hunt at VEW

Vision Expo West 2011 will include a new treasure hunt to drive show traffic and generate excitement about the meeting. LifeStyle Eyecare Centers, a marketing company aimed at assisting independent eye-care professionals in expanding and marketing their practices, will host the event.

Nominations sought

Nominations are now being accepted for the second annual Transitions Vision Benefits Broker of the Year award, which will recognize professionals who are encouraging healthy sight through vision care benefit offerings and education.

OLA announces finalists

Members of the Optical Laboratories Association (OLA) will be able to vote for 2011 Awards of Excellence contenders beginning next month.

Interesting new findings have emerged from a study of the risk factors for the development and progression of diabetic retinopathy, namely, that its severity determines the rate of progression, especially in younger patients.

One of the key themes for this year's meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology was nano technology and regenerative medicine.

The key to the best visual results after cataract and refractive surgery rests with optimizing the ocular surface in patients with dry eye disorders prior to the procedure.

When performing LASIK in eyes with hyperopia with a large positive angle kappa, centering the ablation on the corneal vertex rather than the pupil centroid provides superior results.

Many children, returning to school this fall, will lack the tools that can help them perform at their optimal level: a professional eye exam and glasses, if necessary.

An intrastromal procedure performed using a femtosecond laser fulfills many of the criteria for an ideal presbyopic treatment.

Stem cell-based therapy is an important potential treatment to restore vision in patients with a wide range of retina disease.

An eye for investing

Robert Freedland, MD, who works at Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wis., is a stock market investor for the past 43 years.

Sensory substitution devices are in development as vision restoration technology for the blind, but a lack of accepted standards for screening users and evaluating their performance represents an important impediment to the ultimate of clinical success of these platforms.

Quantitative in vivo assessment of retinal blood flow attained with ultra-high-speed swept source/Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography could be beneficial for assessing pathologic changes in ocular diseases associated with abnormalities in retinal blood flow.

The Henry Ford OptimEyes Super Vision Center has opened in the new Henry Ford Medical Center. The 140,000-square-foot facility includes 65,000 square feet of space for the Henry Ford OptimEyes Super Vision Center, with the remaining space expected to be leased out to private-practice physicians.

Initial top-line results from a Phase III study of bromfenac ophthalmic solution (Remura, ISTA Pharmaceuticals) indicate that bromfenac was not statistically superior to placebo in treating one sign and one symptom of dry eye disease. ISTA announced this result from the WEST study, the first of two phase III safety and efficacy studies being conducted under a special protocol assessment (SPA) agreed upon with the FDA.

B + L expands recall

Bausch + Lomb (B + L) has expanded its voluntary recall of methylcellulose lubricant ophthalmic solution, USP 1% (Murocel) to six lots. Following this voluntary product recall, B + L will discontinue the product entirely.

Dr. Chu honored

Y. Ralph Chu, MD, has been named one of the top 10 business owners in the Twin Cities in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Diversity in Business Awards program.