The World Council of Optometry (WCO) and CooperVision have jointly developed an online myopia management resource designed to enable eyecare professionals – regardless of geographic location – to apply a standard of care to manage the condition.
The WCO said the multilingual resource was developed to serve as a valuable point to provide information that has not been easily accessible and provide a forum to encourage the exchange of knowledge and experiences within the global optometric community.
WCO president Mr Paul Folkesson credited the support of CooperVision in making information regarding the treatment of myopia more accessible than ever before.
“This online resource provides eyecare practitioners from anywhere in the world access to the information they need to implement a standard of care to treat or manage a patient’s myopia progression,” he said.
“This is just the start as we work to provide more materials and educational programming through this collaborative partnership.”
According to the WCO, the online resource is organised around the three main pillars of the evidence-based standard of care unanimously adopted by the WCO board of directors – mitigation, measurement and management.
“Each pillar provides a listing of papers and studies that have been distilled into one-page ‘Myopia Moments’ that are available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish,” the WCO said.
“Visitors to the site can download a Myopia Moment – giving them evidence-based guidance about providing care to a patient – or they can learn more by accessing the many papers and studies that have been aggregated from independent third-party sources.”
WCO and CooperVision announced their global partnership to raise awareness of myopia progression and encourage optometrists to embrace a standard of care to manage the condition in March of this year.
Shortly after that announcement, the WCO board of directors unanimously approved a resolution advising optometrists to incorporate a standard of care for myopia management within their practices.
The launch of the myopia management online resource is the next step to provide eyecare practitioners with the information, knowledge and guidance needed to establish a standard of care in their practice.
“We need eyecare professionals to embrace the support, resources and platform WCO is providing so they can start implementing a standard of care in their practices to treat this condition,” Folkesson said.
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