Healthy Vision with Dr Val Jones, a radio programme devoted to eye health, has recently dealt with the issue of driving in the dark safely and night vision, offering its listeners useful advice on the matter.

The programme included two expert guests (Dr Cristina Schnider, Senior Director, Medical Affairs for Vistakon Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc. and John Ulczycki, Group Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, National Safety Council), who talked about how eyes adjust to low light and how to improve night-time vision and driving.

The experts invoked the results of a survey, in which 515 vision-corrected respondents (wearing glasses or contact lenses) took part and which revealed that only just over a quarter of them had ever consulted an eye care specialist with respect to improving their vision while driving at night.

During the programme, Dr Schnider encouraged all drivers to visit eye care practitioners regularly and discussed all the newest methods of vision correction, including different types of contact lenses.

A global producer of contact lenses and related products, Bausch + Lomb, has purchased all outstanding shares of Laboratorio Pförtner Cornealent SACIF, which is the controlling entity of Waicon, the leader on the Argentinean market of contact lenses and lens care products.

Thanks to this acquisition, Bausch + Lomb will become the leading company conducting activities associated with eye health in Argentina. The Pförtner family (the former owner of Waicon), however, will carry on operating their chain of optical shops as a company independent of Bausch + Lomb, using the “Pförtner” brand name.

Bausch + Lomb’s plan is to integrate Waicon into its Argentinean Vision Care operations, but until it is achieved, Waicon will remain separate and will keep operating independently. As far as the management of the company is concerned, Carina Tarzia will remain (on a temporary basis) Bausch + Lomb’s Argentina Country Manager, while Maximo Pförtner will still be Waicon’s General Manager. In addition, Tomás Pförtner – who found Waicon and is a world-renowned expert in the field of eye health – will become Bausch + Lomb’s Special Scientific Advisor.

Art Optical has introduced Kerasoft IC, a new soft contact lenses designed for patients suffering from keratoconus (a serious, degenerative eye condition characterised by a conical shape of the cornea, leading to significant distortion of vision). The lens was developed by UltraVision CLPL and is available in hydrogel and silicone hydrogel (Definitive manufactured by Contamac) materials. Its unique design can be customised and the lens is sold in many different versions to meet the needs of almost all patients.

Another lens designed for keratoconus sufferers that has been recently launched is NovaKone, produced by Alden Optical. This lens is made of Benz G4X material and is available in a wide variety of versions as well. Moreover, it has an “Increased Thickness (IT) factor”, allowing eye care practitioners to change the centre thickness to match the level of corneal irregularity of a given patient.

According to eye care expert Ronald K. Watanabe, OD, these two new options give ophthalmologists an opportunity to manage keratoconus and similar conditions better.

Thanks to cooperation between WebMD Health Corp. and Bausch + Lomb, contact lenses users around the world can use a new, reliable online source of information. This source consists of two websites, WebMD (www.webmd.com/eye-health), addressed to consumers and Medscape (www.medscape.com), prepared for eye care practitioners.

On WebMD, consumers can find a wide variety of information related to eye health, including the latest news about eye care products (such as contact lenses and solutions), articles with advice on how to keep one’s eyes healthy, or videos showing how to deal with common eye problems.

The other website, Medscape, allows professionals to read about new ways of dealing with clinical problems, presents information about different aspects of eye health (e.g. visual acuity, bio-inspired eye care products, contact lenses) and makes it possible for professionals to discuss important issues with their colleagues.

The supervisors of the project assure that the content of the websites is independent and unbiased. What is more, all information provided by Bausch + Lomb (or content sponsored by the company) will be clearly marked.

According to John O’Hara, the President of LensAlert!, promoting the use of daily contact lenses instead of other lenses is not the best way to ensure patient safety. In a letter the expert wrote to Contact Lenses Today, he states that focusing on education (by eye care professionals) and improving product labels would bring much better results than switching to daily contact lenses.

O’Hara argues that, since a number of contact lens users are not fully aware of the consequences of handling contact lenses inappropriately, they will continue do such dangerous things as swimming or sleeping in lenses, or removing them with unwashed hands after switching to daily contacts.

As patients usually visit their eye care practitioners not often than once a year, O’Hara believes that including special booklets with information about lens care and maintenance in contact lens and solution packaging is the most effective way of educating them. This is because the frequency with which the average patient would have contact with information about lens care would increase from six to ten times.