Optometrists have until 14 October to respond to a short online myopia prescribing survey to ensure Australia and New Zealand are included in global analysis of myopia management.
The 10-minute Myopia Prescribing Survey, supported by the International Myopia Institute (IMI) and World Council of Optometry (WCO), asks for eyecare practitioner’s opinions and approaches to myopia management. No patient details are required, and responses are anonymous.
This is the third IMI and WCO global eyecare practitioner survey on myopia management uptake, with previous surveys published in 2016 and 2020 indicating that Australia and New Zealand lead the world in adoption of myopia management.
However, Myopia Profile co-founder and chair of IMI’s clinical management guidelines committee, Dr Kate Gifford, warned Australia and New Zealand could be excluded from the analysis this year if more responses are not received by 14 October.
“The Myopia Prescribing Survey was undertaken in 2015 and 2019 and showed clear leadership of Australasia in the uptake of myopia management strategies,” she said.
“Our region was the world leader in proactive prescribing, and a shift away from single vision corrections for young progressing myopes. Currently the response rate from our region is so low, that Australasian results are in danger of being removed entirely from the 2022 analysis.”
The survey is available in English, Danish, Greek, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Turkish and Vietnamese.
The English language survey can be accessed here.
IMI Chief Scientist Professor James Wolffsohn said it is well established that clinical research can take several years to impact clinical practice.
“This survey will aid practitioners in benchmarking their practice, as well as identifying barriers to adoption,” he said.
IMI chair Professor Serge Resnikoff said receiving feedback directly from eyecare practitioners would help IMI to identify areas that need further knowledge dissemination and understand factors that could hinder the practitioners to adopt best practice.
The original announcement can be found here.
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