Buy One, Give One Away
Topic: Eye Care
In the post "A Name You Need to Know in 2011: Warby Parker" on Forbes.com, Nicole Perlroth writes: "Warby Parker is doing for global vision what TOMS Shoes did for bare feet: For every pair of eyeglasses the company sells, it gives a pair to someone in need. ...Now, one-year-old Warby Parker aims to be even more ambitious. The company plans to not only hand out fish, but teach people to fish and revolutionize the $16 billion U.S. prescription eyeglass industry along the way....Warby Parker donates its eyeglasses in 24 countries...[The] company also partners with non-profits like VisionSpring, which distributes its glasses to local entrepreneurs, who then sell them at low cost."

Indiana Cuts Eye Care Benefits for Medicaid Recipients
Topic: Eye Care
Fearing financial shortages this coming year, Indiana will cut back on Medicaid services, such as for eye care: "Eyeglasses limited to one pair every five years for people age 21 years or older. (Previous limit was one pair every two years). Eyeglasses for those under 21 limited to one pair per year," notes the Examiner. More states will follow suit as the strain of the current economy takes tolls and on state budgets.

Calculate Your Kids Chances for Cataracts
Topic: Eye Care

It's a lousy proposition. But it can be done. According to a post on OptometryToday, "Transitions Optical has launched a new online tool which predicts the probability of a child developing cataracts later in life. The Children’s Cataract Calculator aims to help practitioners educate parents about the importance of children’s eye health." That's not so lousy. You can find the calculator in the Children's Corner of the Transitions Store on its United Kingdom website. 

Eyecare Apps
Topic: Eye Care
A variety of individuals and manufacturers are offering smart phone apps for consumers and eye care professionals. If you want to see what's out there, check out TheOpticalVisionSite.

Education Will Reduce Vision Impairment in Elderly
Topic: Eye Care
MedicalNewsToday posted: "As in all areas of medicine, the key for preventing diabetic complications in the eye is early detection," explained Madeline L. Romeu, O.D., F.A.A.O. "Diabetic patients are at greater risk of developing diabetic retinopathy, cataract, age-related macular degeneration or open angle glaucoma, all of which are vision-threatening. In fact, research shows that 23.5 percent of patients over the age of 50 will become vision impaired."

Artificial Retina? Yeap!
Topic: Eye Care
"Scientists have constructed an artificial retina that incorporates the signals the eye normally sends to the brain. The new prosthetic may be capable of reproducing normal vision more effectively than existing technologies (Sheila Nirenberg, PhD, abstract 20.1)," notes a post on MedicalNewsToday.

Eye Allergies Unnoticed and Untreated for Millions
Topic: Eye Care
"Millions of Americans suffer unnecessarily with itchy, gritty, watery eyes, according to allergists at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) in Phoenix, Nov. 11-16. The underdiagnosis, undertreatment and self-treatment of eye allergies may seriously diminish quality of life, allergists say." That's the most recent post about vision care from MedicalNewsToday.

Girl Blinded in 10 Weeks
Topic: Eye Care

"Schoolgirl Becky Cranmer has baffled doctors after she went blind in just 10 weeks," according to a post on TamesideAdvertiser. (Another version of the story was posted on the website for the DailyMail.) "Six months ago Becky, 11, was looking forward to the summer break before starting at Denton Community College. But during a family holiday in June, her eyesight started to fail – and 10 weeks later she was blind. Becky’s mum took her to an optician, who told them to go to hospital. She spent the next six weeks having tests at the Royal Oldham Hospital and the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital before doctors diagnosed optic neuritis, the inflammation of the optic nerve." Then her story worsens. 

NJ Non-Profit Center Gets Glaxo Award
Topic: Eye Care
On December 13, the healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline will award the South Jersey Eye Center, Inc.,  Camden, NJ, its  14th Annual IMPACT Award. Glaxo's press release noted that the Camden eyecare facility will receive $40,000 for providing access to effective healthcare services.

Free Eye Exams for the World's Poor
Topic: Eye Care
"Around the world, half a billion people live with uncorrected vision problems, according to World Health Organization estimates, in part because eye specialists are rare in the developing world," according to a story on the Boston Globe's website Boston.com. "But a team at the MIT Media Lab believes it can help restore sharp eyesight to many of these people, with a vision test that uses cellphones, an inexpensive clip-on eyepiece, and free software."

Winning the Battle--Slowly--Against River Blindness with Merck's Support
Topic: Eye Care
"Public health officials at the 20th Inter-American Conference on Onchocerciasis in Antigua, Guatemala, confirmed that more than one-third of all Latin Americans who ran the risk of contracting river blindness (onchocerciasis), a leading cause of preventable blindness, are no longer at risk," reports MedicalNewsToday. "Officials attribute the successes in Latin America to a ...partnership led by the Carter Center...The Carter Center - through its sponsorship of the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas (OEPA) - assists national ministries of health in six affected countries in Latin America to conduct health education and distribute Merck's medicine, ivermectin (registered trademark Mectizan)...'Merck has donated Mectizan for more than 20 years and will continue to do so until river blindness becomes a disease of the past,' said Richard T. Clark, chairman and CEO of Merck."

Teenager Going Door-to-Door Seeking Money for Eye Treatment
Topic: Eye Care
"Christopher Gipp has been knocking on strangers’ doors asking for help to pay for a procedure OHIP won't cover. Gipp, who suffered a stroke seven months ago, is hoping to have his sight restored — somewhat, at least — through hyperbaric oxygen therapy," according to HamiltonMountainNews.

Facebook Isn't Making Visitors Blind
Topic: Eye Care
Two days ago, Facebook shrank the font size of news feeds on people's home pages. Then the complaints flew, some claiming the onset of blindness. CNET reported that "If your eyes are hurting from the text on Facebook's home page, they were probably already subject to eye strain--the term for the discomfort, dryness, redness, and other unpleasant symptoms that can result from focusing on a computer screen or other object for too long--long before you loaded up the social network to check up on your FrontierVille homestead or to remove some unflattering photo tags. Eye care professionals say the smaller font size is unlikely to affect users' vision or eye health any more than its larger-type brethren. Eye strain, too, is temporary and very preventable." By the way CNET is not affliiated with Facebook.

Volunteers Provide Care for 12,000
Topic: Eye Care

An international team of volunteer eye care professionals has reached more than 12,000 underprivileged people in the latest OneSight Foundation mission to a poor township, just outside of the South African city of Pretoria, goes the post on MiVision.

Eye Clinic Gets Millions from a Reader
Topic: Eye Care
"Clemence “Keme” Williams, never one to mince words, has strong feelings about the Storm Eye Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina," goes the post on GreenvilleOnline. "'The Storm Eye Clinic saved my life,' says Williams, who was in such excruciating pain in 1998 that she says she 'would have committed suicide' had the Storm Eye Institute not solved a serious problem in both eyes.Williams, 85, has shown her appreciation by planning a gift of more than $1 million to the institute. Already a member of the Millennium Society of MUSC, Williams has established a fund that will donate the proceeds of her and her deceased sister’s estate, valued at more than $1 million, to the Storm Institute."

"Get Sighted" Goes National
Topic: Eye Care
Bringing Transitions Optical's "Get Sighted" initiative to a national level, actor Erik Estrada of the famed 1970's TV show "CHiPs," along with optometrist Larry Lampert, is raising awareness about the importance of healthy sight among consumers across the country.  Over the past few months, Estrada, as a Healthy Sight Officer, has already led the Healthy Sight Patrol through the streets of New York City and at the Transitions Championship in the Tampa Bay area to distribute "Sight-Ations" for violations such as "Visual Abandonment" and "Indecent Exposure" to consumers who were not wearing proper UV-blocking eyewear while outdoors.  Now, Estrada has teamed up with Dr. Larry Lampert to educate consumers nationwide about year-round eye health. That's a post from the PRNewsWire.

Bionic Eye Gives Sight to the Blind
Topic: Eye Care
A 46-year-old man thought he would never see again after a devastating eye disease robbed him of his sight," according to the DailyMail.

Saginaw ECP Gets $25,000 Grant
Topic: Eye Care
The Saginaw Area Foundation for Eye Care was one of four Saginaw health care providers to receive $15,000 grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Teh grants are a part of the insurer's Strengthening the Safety Net program. That's the report from mLive.

VA Caused Blindness in 87-Year-Old Vet
Topic: Eye Care
"The federal government has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by an 87-year-old veteran who alleged that he became legally blind as a result of negligent medical treatment at the Palo Alto veterans hospital," reports the MercuryNews. "The investigation revealed the hospital's optometrists had not followed an internal policy that required all patients with glaucoma to have their treatment overseen and reviewed by an ophthalmologist, a medical doctor that specializes in eye care."

UK Spending Too Much on Eye Care
Topic: Eye Care
"Its on-the-ground research...shows that public sector organisations could be collectively overspending up to £127 million (£1 equals about $1.60) on obligatory eyecare for their staff," says an article posted on PersonnelToday. The British opticians group, Specsavers, "has discovered that poor procurement decisions are resulting in public sector organisations typically spending between £50 and £80 per employee, and some as much as £200. This service can in fact be provided for as little as £17 per employee.  With virtually all jobs now entailing some use of visual display units, multiplied by the 6.051million people employed in the public sector, this could result in a massive overspend in the region of £127million." It's a wonder if the American public sector could learn from this study.