• The GattonStar reports that "optometrist Anita Salter of Eyecare Plus Gatton, is taking the World Sight Day Challenge....On World Sight Day, ... Anita will donate her eye exam fees to help provide eye exams and glasses to children who can't see to learn at school and adults who can't see to provide for their families.
• "It takes a lot of work for Monique Pilkington to sort out the logistics of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) Medical Mobile Eye Care Clinic’s yearly tour of northern Ontario," notes NorthernLife.ca. Pilkington must ... "ensure two nurses are trained to drive the transport truck containing a mini-ophthalmologist’s office, recruit ophthalmologists to work in the eye van and co-ordinate with local Lions Club members, who act as hosts in the various communities the program visits. ...The eye van serves about 5,000 people each year in 30 communities, providing vision screening, treatment of eye conditions and minor surgery."
• Optometry Giving Sight, the organizer of the World Sight Day Challenge, funds programs that train local eye care professionals and develop vision centers which provide permanent vision care to  people in desperate need. That need increases annually.
• "The world is suffering a global eye care crisis according to world leaders in vision health and development who attended the World Congress on Refractive Error in Durban, South Africa." The KansisCityStar posted the following: "A staggering 670 million are avoidably blind or vision impaired because they don't have simple vision correction (spectacles) that could be provided at a relatively low cost, reports leading advocate, Professor Brien Holden, CEO of the International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE). 'The cost of not providing eye care services to those in need is well in excess of approximately $US269 billion per annum, just in lost productivity. The sad part is, the numbers affected by uncorrected vision problems will only rise if we don't recognise it and take action,' he told the congress."

Posted by ct3/opticalceu at 5:14 AM EDT
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Opticians from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island are reserving seats for OpticalCEU's Fall 2010 Conference at the MGM Grand Conference Center, Foxwoods Resort and Casino on Sunday,October 24. (Click to register online; click for directions). If you have not registered, we strongly advise that you do. During the past six conferences, we have sold out and have not been able to accept last minute reservations. You can register online or call 203-366-5991 (leave a message).

Contrary to rumor and speculation, Connecticut's Department of Health, by legislative mandate, requires all licensed opticians to take seven hours of in-person continuing education in order to maintain their licenses. Without that seven hours, a licensed optician is in violation of state law. Just last year, the state of Massachusetts audited all licensed opticians, ensuring that they were all up-to-date with their credits. Massachusetts has a similar law as does Connecticut.

Posted by ct3/opticalceu at 6:18 AM EDT
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Nearly 50,000 people will be given free eye checks, consultancy and surgery in the largest charity vision program on Oct. 14, World Sight Day, in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. For two weeks, teams of eye doctors will travel to outlying districts and schools to provide eye examinations and cataract operations.

The program was organized by the Ha Noi Eye Hospital and the Australian charity, ,the Fred Hollow Foundation. Last year doctors working through the foundation performed 195,406 eye operations and treatments, and since its founding, its doctors have examined more than 1.7 million people living in some of the world's poorest regions.

Posted by ct3/opticalceu at 7:23 AM EDT
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There has been an eyewear-related crime spree of late:

• "Prosecutors say DNA from a pair of telltale eyeglasses has led them to a suspect in a vicious attack on a New York City teenager six years ago...Authorities found the attacker's glasses and took a DNA sample. But prosecutors say it went unidentified until the attacker's DNA was entered into a state database in September, after his burglary conviction," according to a post on WCAX's website.
• NPR radio reported that during a party at London's famed Serpentine Club, a man snatched the glasses off the face of famed American writer Jonathan Franzen. The culprit left a ransome note demanding $100,000...."Partygoers chased after the thief, who jumped into the Serpentine, a small lake that divides Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens...[The police] called in a helicopter, concerned the culprit could drown....The prankster was 'eventually coaxed out of some bushes,' and some 30 minutes later, 'a very nice police officer' returned the glasses, which the author describes as 'heavy, brown, horn-rimmish sort of things.'"

Posted by ct3/opticalceu at 8:41 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 6 October 2010 6:41 AM EDT
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ContactLenses.co.uk has posted the following:

An industry prize has been won by a hydrating contact lens for showing innovation in the eyecare field. The $10,000 (£6,200) grand prize in the BMEStart competition was awarded to North Carolina State University for their HydrEYE CorneOasis Contact Lens...."The product description states that the device is meant for patients with traumatic brain injury, presumably to make it easier for nurses to care [for] the eyes of comatose patients. We could also see it being useful for patients with facial nerve disorders," Med Gadget reported.

Posted by ct3/opticalceu at 8:30 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 6 October 2010 6:04 AM EDT
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