New myopia ‘calculator’ launched

A web-based platform that merges individual patient information with a range of optical and pharmacological treatment options for myopia has been launched by the Brien Holden Vision Institute.

After inputting a patient’s age and refractive error, the myopia ‘calculator’ allows practitioners to predict how myopia will progress under different treatment options.

The tool draws from data in peer-reviewed publications and clinical trials.

The range of management options that can be selected with the calculator include multifocal soft contact lenses, peripheral defocus spectacles, executive bifocals, progressive addition spectacles orthokeratology as well as low and high dose atropine.

Head of the myopia programme at the Brien Holden Vision Institute, Professor Padmaja Sankaridurg, highlighted that myopia was a major public health problem.

“We’re not only developing novel optical treatments for myopia management and conducting epidemiological research, but, through professional development courses and aids like the calculator, we are providing practitioners with the knowledge and tools to offer their patients the best evidence-based treatment options,” she shared.

Optometrists can try using the technology on the Brien Holden Vision Institute website.

Consultant optometrist Nick Dash told OT that myopia progression calculators are a useful tool for clinicians to predict levels of myopia and associated risks of ocular stretching.

There are other calculators available that analyse the risk of myopia and techniques to control myopia progression, he shared.

The Myopia Care Web App, which is free to the public and clinicians, links those at risk of myopia with specialists.

Mr Dash highlighted that the app offered strategies to deal with the “epidemic of myopia.”