We believe that everyone should have access to doctors and eye exams in order to maintain healthy vision and prevent blindness. Sadly, there are many locations around the world where vision disorders and blindness are a huge problem among the population and the ability to receive proper treatment is not always an option.

As part of our commitment to help create and maintain strong, healthy communities, Optos is proud to support organizations that provide medical assistance to some of the most under-served populations around the world. One such organization is the Himalayan Cataract Project (HCP).

The HCP was founded in 1995 by Drs. Sanduk Ruit and Geoff Tabin, a pair of ophthalmologists that shared an ambition to eliminate as much unnecessary blindness as they could during their lifetimes. The organization is rooted in the Tilganga Eye Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal – the first outpatient cataract surgery facility of its kind in the Himalayan region. The Himalayan region, as Dr. Tabin says, is an area where blindness has long been viewed as a death sentence: “People long thought that as you grow old, your hair turns white, your eyes turn white and you die.”

Drs. Tabin and Ruit …

We’re all familiar with the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” and how a balanced diet is essential for one’s health. But can certain foods actually help save the vision of your patients?

The Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) conducted over a decade ago revealed that there are nutritional supplements that can minimize the risk of AMD. The AREDS2 preliminary findings also reveal that lifestyle adjustments and nutritional supplements can help reduce one’s risk for AMD.

As Robert Able Jr., MD, shared with Ophthalmology Management, most treatments for age-related eye diseases can be quite expensive, but these procedures can be prevented if ocular nutrition is taken seriously and patients start adding the right foods and supplements to their diet.

So which foods and supplements might be able to help save the vision of your patients dealing with age-related eye problems? Below are a few recommendations.

Fish, spinach, kale, turnip greens, corn, squash, and pumpkins that are rich in lutein and zeaxanthin are helpful for patients who have cataracts, category 3 or 4 AMD, or a family history of AMD. Lutein and zeaxanthin help decrease the risk of damage to the inner eye caused …

Do you find reducing patient anxiety to be your biggest challenge some days? According to Optometry Today, a study of 366 patients once revealed that practitioners “cannot assume that anxiety is reserved for one ‘type’ of patient,” but rather those patients that fall into a certain classification, such as high anxiety personality types, patients expecting to receive some bad news, and those who currently don’t wear glasses or contact lenses.

Anxiety can make an eye exam uncomfortable and very stressful for your patients. Optometry Today further notes that there is a distinct tie between patient anxiety and lower levels of satisfaction after their exam, which is why you should not only take the time to learn what makes patients feel anxious, but also learn how you can effectively use strategies to decrease anxiety. Below are a few suggestions outlined by Optometry Today:

Identify the Source of Anxiety – Talk with patients before the exam to see if they feel nervous about any aspect of it and then modify routines as needed to help reduce anxiety.

Be a Good Communicator – Practitioners should communicate in a way that’s easy for the patients to understand, such as putting their condition …

Computers and smart devices are a constant part of our daily lives. They offer a convenient way to stay connected with the happenings of the world, but too much screen time could be harming your patients’ eyes.

People who spend extended periods of time working at a computer usually experience several physical aches associated with hours of computer use. However, the American Optometric Association shares that the most prevalent issues of patients who spend long periods of time at a computer include eye-strain, blurred vision, and other computer vision syndrome symptoms.

As vision problems are the most commonly reported symptoms of computer vision syndrome, it’s important to encourage all patients, but especially those who work with computers for many hours a day, to adopt better computer use and eye care habits, such as the following:

Blinking regularly to wash the eyes with natural tears and using artificial tears as needed.

Incorporating the 20-20-20 rule into their daily routines – Take a 20 second break every20 minutes to look at something that’s 20 feet or further away.

Remind them of proper workstation setup, which will help ease vision issues as well as other physical pain sitting …

The first retinal implant has recently been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As reported by Reuters, this device will help replicate some of the functions of the retina that have been destroyed by retinitis pigmentosa.

The implant, called the Argus II, is composed of a special pair of glasses with a video camera and video processing unit, as well as a wireless receiver that is implanted in the eye. The entire device mimics the retinal functions that process what we see and relay it to the optic nerve. While the implant doesn’t provide total vision restoration, it can help patients with everyday activities like recognizing large letters or shapes.

The Argus II was first approved for use in Europe in 2011. Since the beginning of a clinical trial in 2007, the device has been implanted in 30 patients. Mark Humayun of the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine and USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering shared with Reuters “In the patients that have been implanted to date, the improvement in the quality of life has been invaluable.”

The news that this retinal implant has been approved by the FDA is certainly …

Blurred vision in one or both eyes can be a sign of a simple change in vision or something much more serious, especially when it occurs suddenly and persists for a few days. A 36-year-old new patient of Dr. Paula Koch, OD, noticed a “blob-like, blurry-ness” in his left eye and knew a visit to the eye doctor was necessary to get to the bottom of the issue.

While the patient’s medical history was unremarkable, his ocular history included a high keratoconic prescription, partial albinism, and amblyopia. Based on his ocular history and current symptoms, Dr. Koch recommended an optomap exam. The patient agreed to the exam, which revealed a rhegmatogenous retinal detachment spanning the 11-to 7-o’clock region of the nasal retina OS, as well as a small tear at 9 o’clock and some chorioretinal scarring in the far periphery and Weiss’ ring inferior to the disc. Because of the patient’s partial albinism and other unusual aspects of the optomap’s finding, including the blister-like appearance of the detachment, Dr. Koch referred the patient to a retinal specialist within 20 minutes of the optomap exam.

The retinal specialist performed a pneumatic retinopexy, which was unsuccessful and lead to a …

When you’re driving to a place you’ve never visited before, a map is a helpful tool that can aid you finding the place you need to be. A street view provides you with an up-close look at where you’re going, but it may cut off certain signs or landmarks you’ll need to look for. A wider view of a map shows you more of what you need to see in order to arrive at your destination with ease.

Similar things can be said for an eye exam. In a standard eye exam, conventional equipment limits you to a 45-degree field of view of the retina, showing very small portions of the retina at a time. With such limitations, there is a good possibility that signs or symptoms of an eye or systemic disease are left out of your field of view.

Ultra-widefield retinal imagining provides you with a more complete picture of your patient’s eyes. Optos’ ultra-widefield technology allows you to see up to 200 degrees of the retina in just one capture. With a wider field of view, you have a better opportunity to detect issues like retinal detachment or tears you might have otherwise missed.

The images …

In recent years, a variety of health issues have gained a significant amount of attention. Conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity are just a few of the many health problems that are contributing to the very grim prediction that “The current generation of American children may be the first not to live as long as their parents,” according to an article in the Georgia Health News.

The good news is that most of the health issues plaguing our nation are actually preventable or can be effectively managed when detected in their earliest stages. That’s why preventive health care is important now more than ever. The World Research Foundation notes that preventive health care offers a variety of benefits ranging from avoiding the need to deal with painful symptoms to simply having more energy, as well as maintaining a healthier lifestyle.

Preventive health care not only includes annual physical exams, but annual eye exams, as well. Many cases of vision loss could be prevented and treated if the issue were detected early on. Additionally, many systemic diseases can be spotted through a retinal exam long before other symptoms present themselves – a fact that many of …

The retina is a sensory membrane that lines the eye and controls how we see our surroundings. A deeper look into this part of the eye can help doctors detect and discover certain health issues.

A good example is the story of Cheree Burnette. Ms. Burnette was experiencing blurred vision and she knew an eye exam could help determine the problem. She told KPLCTV Channel 7 “…I had a problem that caused me to have distorted vision and came in pretty quickly after that and they were able to tell me exactly what I had.”

Ms. Burnette’s optometrist, Dr. Robert Janot, performed a retinal exam using the Daytona ultra-widefield retinal imaging device, which identified Ms. Burnette’s condition as a retinal vein occlusion, or a blocked vein in her eye. The image also helped reveal another problem, which could have been the initial cause of the retinal vein occlusion.

“I had undiagnosed pre-hypertension, which we believe was the cause,” she told KPLCTV Channel 7.

Dr. Janot shared that he performs the optomap exam on all patients to check their eye health and see issues that might be occurring beyond the surface. An optomap image provides a panoramic view of the retina, …

Eyes are the window to one’s soul, as the saying goes, but did you know they also reveal a lot about a person’s health? According to an August 2012 report from The Wall Street Journal (The WSJ), eyes can provide clues to health issues ranging from rheumatoid arthritis and lupus to diabetes and brain tumors.

The reason our eyes reveal so much about our health, the WSJ states, has to do with our bodies’ interconnected systems. The article states “changes in the eye can reflect those in the vascular, nervous and immune system, among others. And because the eyes are see-through in a way other organs aren’t, they offer a unique glimpse into the body.”

For this reason, and for the sake of your eyes, routine eye exams are essential, as eye doctors can sometimes spot a potential medical condition before other doctors can, often leading to an earlier diagnosis and treatment. For example, tiny blood clots in the retina can be an indicator of a risk for stroke, while thickened blood-vessel walls paired with narrowing of the vessels are a sign of high blood pressure.

Because the eyes can offer clues for an array of …