Category: News

MEMBERSHIP PERKS IN MARCH

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DLP2023 goes live next month

The IACLE Distance Learning Program (DLP) is a self-study program designed to improve the contact lens knowledge of educators, assist in contact lens teaching endeavors, and prepare candidates for the Fellowship Exam. The DLP is a phased study aid for the IACLE Contact Lens Course and we encourage all those registered for the Fellowship Exam to complete it. The updated version of the DLP goes live in April.

Look out for a Special Notice for more details

Register now for the Fellowship exam

Last month, we opened registration for the 2023 IACLE Fellowship Exam that is taking place on Wednesday 22 November, virtually via IACLETOP, in English, Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Bahasa. Members who achieve a successful outcome of the exam become eligible to apply for Fellow of IACLE (FIACLE) status. The fee for the Fellowship Exam is the same cost as your membership. For example, if your membership fee is $100, the exam fee will also be $100. If you have already registered but haven’t yet paid, a reminder that making payment for the exam confirms registration. Please note, Members must hold IACLE membership for at least one year before applying for FIACLE status. 

Register for the Fellowship Exam. For more information

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THIS MONTH’S GLOBAL WEBINAR

Effect of material and care system combination on subclinical inflammation of the ocular surface in soft contact lens wear

Join us on Wednesday 22 March at 12 noon (GMT) for a webinar with Noor Haziq Saliman and a question and answer session with co-authors Professor Philip Morgan and Dr Carole Maldonado-Codina relating to work on the subclinical inflammatory response to contact lens wear.  

Previous work conducted by Dr Saliman and colleagues investigated the subclinical inflammatory response (or ‘parainflammation’) of the ocular surface in contact lens wear. It showed that wearing daily disposable lenses produced a minimal inflammatory response. The authors observed that the inflammatory response was upregulated with reusable lenses compared with daily disposable and no lenses.  

In this webinar, the authors will discuss ocular subclinical inflammatory response in two soft contact lens materials when combined with two different care systems (multipurpose solution and hydrogen peroxide).

Members can watch live online via zoom, and the event will be live streamed to our Facebook page for students and eye care practitioners to tune into. 

Find out what time the webinar begins in your time zone

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NEWS IN MARCH

Image of the Month

Maruee Pahuja from Natasha Eye Care and Research Centre in Pune, India, captured this image using the macro lens on an iPhone 13 Pro. The image shows a patient who, on day three after undergoing penetrating keratoplasty in the left eye, had a dense corneal opacity with spheroidal degeneration as the reason for needing the operation.

Would you like to feature in next month’s Image of the Month? Submit your image

IACLE members collaborate on EBT report

Last summer, a team led by EAME Regional Director Dr Fabrizio Zeri and Vice President Professor Shehzad Naroo invited IACLE members to contribute to an evidence-based teaching report specific to contact lens education. The team, consisting of Dr Zeri, Professor Naroo, Professor Craig Woods, Frank Eperjesi, and IACLE members Dr Stefan Bandlitz, Ajay Kumar Bhootra, Dr Mahesh Raj Joshi, and Helmer Schweizer utilized their expertise to complete a comprehensive literature review of current evidence of teaching methods in contact lens training.

Read the outcomes of the report

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RESOURCES

CL Update 70 features dry eye management

IACLE member Professor Jennifer Craig authors the latest Contact Lens Update editorial on dry eye management. The review highlights that although there is no cure, there are numerous therapies available, including patient-applied treatments and in-office procedures. Clinicians should consider a multimodal approach to manage dry eye disease and customize treatment based on the identified deficiencies.

Read the editorial

The latest Cochrane systematic review

The latest Cochrane systematic review on myopia management is available now. It is a ‘living systematic review’ which means it will continuously be updated as this is a fast-evolving market and new clinical trial results are published regularly. Its current conclusion is that, although there are pharmacological and optical interventions which effectively reduce refractive change and axial elongation, the sustained effects > one year of treatment are uncertain. This also applies to combination therapies and adverse effects.

Read the full text

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COVID-19 RESOURCES

A recent study from China concluded that children treated with 0.01% atropine had slower myopia progression during the lockdown period in Shanghai compared with children who discontinued the therapy.

Read the full text

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WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OUR REGIONS?

AMERICAS

Spanish-speaking webinars in February

Every week, Americas Regional Coordinator Guillermo Carrillo hosts a webinar series ‘Miércoles de Lentes de Contacto’ (Contact Lens Wednesdays), where speakers and IACLE members from across the Latin America region discuss different contact lens-related topics. In February, there was a total of 207 attendees, including 49 IACLE members and 158 ECPs. The webinars covered topics including proactive contact lens fittings, binocular vision, scleral lens fittings, and IACLE’s Research Update.

Catch up on Spanish-speaking webinars. Read the full Americas meeting report

ASIA PACIFIC

South Korean member awarded Honorary Membership

IACLE Korea National Coordinator Professor Kyounghee Park recently visited Eulji University in Daejeon, South Korea, and presented an Honorary Certificate to Lifetime FIACLE Professor Koonja Lee, who has been an IACLE member since 1995, a Fellow of IACLE since 2000 and served as the president of the Korean Society of Vision Science. Professor Lee has been devoted to contact lens education for over 35 years, published four contact lens books and 70 related theses, and was instrumental in introducing IACLE’s educational materials for contact lens education in Korea. She has become an honorary member of IACLE ahead of her retirement.

Read the full Asia Pacific report

EUROPE / AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

Upcoming BCLA webinar on ideal tear ingredients

The British Contact Lens Association invites IACLE members to its upcoming webinar on ‘Ideal tear ingredients for comfortable contact lens wear’ on Wednesday 29 March at 6:30 pm UK (BST). The webinar focuses on maintaining a healthy tear film to avoid dry eye symptoms, which is essential for successful contact lens wear. It covers diagnostics, key parameters to monitor, acceptable limits, management, and future developments.

For more information and to register

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

IACLE TLC (Teach. Learn. Connect) WEBINARS 

Visit the IACLE Webinars area on IACLETOP to view the schedule for upcoming webinars.

GLOBAL MEETINGS IN THE COMING MONTHS 

14th Annual Congress on Controversies in Ophthalmology, Lisbon, Portugal, 24-25 March. Details. 

49th EFCLIN Congress and Exhibition, The Hague, The Netherlands, 20-22 April. Details.

IACLE 4th World Congress, Birmingham, UK, 5-8 June. Details. 

BCLA Clinical Conference & Exhibition, Manchester, UK, 9-11 June. Details. 

4th World Congress of Optometry (WCO4) and O=MEGA23, Melbourne, Australia, 8-10 September. Details. 

American Academy of Optometry, New Orleans, USA, 11-14 October. Details. 

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IACLE IS SPONSORED BY

MEMBERSHIP PERKS IN FEBRUARY

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2023 Awards deadline closes next week

Three IACLE members will travel to the 4th IACLE World Congress and the British Contact Lens Association’s (BCLA) Clinical Conference & Exhibition this year as winners of the 2023 IACLE Contact Lens Educator of the Year Awards. The 2023 awards ceremony will take place during the Gala Dinner at our 4th World Congress in Birmingham, UK. To apply, please submit an entry using the application form. To nominate a colleague, please fill out their details in the form here. Entries close on Friday 24 February at midnight (EST). 

For more information

Would you like to become a Fellow of IACLE?

The 2023 Fellowship Exam will take place on Wednesday 22 November 2023, virtually via IACLETOP, in English, Chinese, Spanish Korean and Bahasa. Members who achieve a successful outcome of the exam become eligible to apply for Fellow of IACLE (FIACLE) status. The fee for the Fellowship Exam is the same cost as your membership. For example, if your membership fee is $100, the exam fee will also be $100. Payments must be received by 30 June. Existing FIACLEs can also sit the Fellowship Exam – free of charge – to refresh their knowledge and keep abreast of the latest contact lens developments. 

Please note, new members must hold IACLE membership for at least one year before applying for FIACLE status. 

Register now. For more information

WC4 stipends

Applications for travel stipends for our 4th World Congress have now closed. Those who have applied for a stipend have been notified by the IACLE Team. Registration for WC4 remains open to all IACLE members.

Register for WC4. For more information

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IACLETOP

Complimentary access to a Student Area for members

In 2021, we introduced the Student Area, a space on IACLETOP with the tools to allow educators to produce individual teaching content and assessments while streamlining and integrating IACLE resources, acting as your own online Learning Management System.

To give you a chance to try the area and to see if this resource enhances your teaching, we are offering complimentary access for one year to our members who haven’t yet registered for a Student Area. 

Read a Special Notice for more information

Read the fact sheets in: Bahasa – Chinese – English – Korean – Spanish

In our February global webinar, Professor Nathan Efron argued that contact lens wear is intrinsically inflammatory and that this response of the ocular surface is inherently ‘good news’. In an authoritative presentation, Professor Efron reflected on his career in clinical research to discuss this interesting hypothesis and answered questions from the large online audience of mainly IACLE members.

Catch up on the webinar via IACLETOP

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NEWS IN FEBRUARY

Image of the Month

Karpagavalli Subramanian from Sankara Nethralaya Medical Research Foundation in Chennai, India, captured these images using a Topcon photo slit lamp of a 27-year-old male patient who reported to the specialty contact lens department following a firecracker injury which resulted in multiple studded foreign bodies on the cornea. His main complaints were blurred vision and photophobia. His BCVA was OU 6/60 which improved to OU 6/9 with PROSE scleral lens. Photophobia was significantly reduced with the lens, and he was able to open his eyes. 

Share your photographs with us for the 2023 IACLE Image Library and enter our Image of the Year competition for the chance to win a year of free IACLE membership and a US$100 Amazon voucher. 

Would you like to feature in next month’s Image of the Month? Submit your image here

Alcon and WCO dry eye series continues

The World Council of Optometry (WCO) and Alcon have opened registration for their third complimentary global dry eye disease webinar titled ‘Dry Eye Spotlight 3: Management’. The webinar takes place on 14 March and will explore the importance of being choiceful and methodical in different approaches available to manage dry eye. Professor Lyndon Jones is leading the session and features Professors Jennifer Craig and James Wolffsohn.

For more information and to register

Virtual Perspectives with CooperVision next month

CooperVision’s Virtual Perspectives event returns on Sunday 5 March themed ‘Improving lives, one person at a time’. The half-day virtual conference features presentations and panel discussions on successful contact lens wear, myopia management and presbyopia. IACLE President Professor Philip Morgan and Lifetime FIACLE and Director at the Centre for Ocular Research and Education (CORE) Professor Lyndon Jones are moderating the event. The agenda also features IACLE colleagues and members Dr Byki Huntjens and Professor James Wolffsohn.

For more information. Register here

Renew your IACLE membership

Thank you to all our members who have renewed their membership for 2023. We are looking forward to delivering more programs, resources, and events in the coming year. This is a kind reminder that access to our full range of membership benefits – including the resources and programs within IACLETOP and all resources and events under the Teach. Learn. Connect. Initiative – is exclusively available for IACLE members. IACLE membership runs on an annual cycle and expires when payment is not received. Access to full membership benefits ended on 31 January if payment had not been received, and a late fee will be payable for members failing to pay by the end of February. 

Please note without active membership, FIACLE status is not valid. Membership renewal is not required for Honorary Members.

More information on how to renew your membership

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RESOURCES

Read the latest from Contact Lens & Anterior Eye

The February issue of Contact Lens & Anterior Eye is devoted to specialist contact lenses and features papers on scleral lenses, orthokeratology, and myopia control contact lenses.  

Read the issue

3rd Catania’s Primary Care of the Anterior Segment launches soon

The 3rd edition of Catania’s Primary Care of the Anterior Segment, authored by Dr Louis Catania and co-authored by Dr Brian Armitage, launches next month (20 March). The original chapters have been updated, with chapters on the management of pre and postoperative cataract and refractive surgery patients added to the third edition. The publisher is offering a 20% discount on pre-orders starting from 27 February using the discount code ‘AFL01’.

For more information

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COVID-19 RESOURCE

In a recently published randomized clinical trial, wearing glasses in the community did not have a protective effect on the primary outcome of a reported positive COVID-19 test result. However, study results were limited by small sample sizes and other issues, hence more trials are needed to investigate further.

Read the full paper

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WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OUR REGIONS?

AMERICAS

Catch up on the latest Latin American webinars

Every week, Americas Regional Coordinator Guillermo Carrillo hosts the radio program ‘IACLE in the World’ interviewing IACLE members from across the Latin America region. In the past month, 166 IACLE members and eye care practitioners joined our Latin American webinars. We heard from Professor John Jairo Valencia who presented ‘Back surface toric RGPs – a great option’, and Professor Alejandra Martinez who spoke on ‘Perception and assessment: success of failure in fitting children and adolescents with contact lenses’.

Catch up on all Spanish-speaking webinars

ASIA PACIFIC

Industry seminar in India

Around 40 students from Sankara Nethralaya and the Elite School of Optometry in Chennai, India, attended an interactive industry session (21 January). CooperVision Professional Services Manager Rashmi Kanojiya and Professional Services Consultant Sowmya Kumarkrishnan gave an update on the latest CooperVision products. The students learned how to compare anterior segment grading scales using CooperVision’s OptiExpert app and how to determine an individual’s digital usage to promote the Biofinity Energys Lenses. 

EUROPE / AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST

BCLA invites IACLE members to upcoming webinar

The British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) invites IACLE members to its upcoming member-only webinar on Wednesday 1 March. Dr Sònia Travé Huarte, IACLE member, postdoctoral researcher and optometrist at Aston University in Birmingham, UK, presents ‘Bringing evidence-based dry eye diagnostics and management into your practice’.

Register for the webinar here

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

IACLE TLC (Teach. Learn. Connect) WEBINARS 

Visit the IACLE Webinars area on IACLETOP to view the schedule for upcoming webinars.

GLOBAL MEETINGS IN THE COMING MONTHS 

14th Annual Congress on Controversies in Ophthalmology, Lisbon, Portugal, 24-25 March. Details. 

49th EFCLIN Congress and Exhibition, The Hague, The Netherlands, 20-22 April. Details.

IACLE 4th World Congress, Birmingham, UK, 5-8 June. Details. 

BCLA Clinical Conference & Exhibition, Manchester, UK, 9-11 June. Details. 

4th World Congress of Optometry (WCO4) and O=MEGA23, Melbourne, Australia, 8-10 September. Details. 

American Academy of Optometry, New Orleans, USA, 11-14 October. Details. 

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IACLE IS SPONSORED BY

Would you like to become a Fellow of IACLE?

We are pleased to announce that registration for the 2023 IACLE Fellowship Exam is now open. 

The Fellowship Exam will take place on Wednesday 22 November 2023, virtually via IACLETOP, in English, Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Bahasa. 

After completing the registration form, your IACLE representative will be in touch to confirm the receipt of your registration and will send an invoice for the payment of the exam. The fee for the Fellowship Exam is the same cost as your membership. For example, if your membership fee is $100, the exam fee will also be $100. Payments must be received by 30 June.

Existing FIACLEs can also sit the Fellowship Exam – free of charge – to refresh their knowledge and keep abreast of the latest contact lens developments. 

Preparing for the Fellowship Exam

Distance Learning Program

Our Distance Learning Program (DLP) is a series of assessments designed to guide members through the IACLE Contact Lens Course, module by module, and was specifically designed to help members prepare for the Fellowship Exam. An updated version – DLP2023 – goes live in April and will be available in English, Chinese, Korean and Spanish. 

Fellowship Exam Area

The Fellowship Exam Area is a space within IACLETOP dedicated to those sitting the Fellowship Exam, allowing members to join study groups, understand different methods of assessment, sit mock exams, and chat with other members who are also taking the exam. The Fellowship Exam Area launches in May.

Monthly Workshops

From May, the Education Team will host monthly workshops to help members prepare for the exam and answer any questions or concerns you may have. The monthly workshops begin in May. 

For more information, please visit our website. 

IACLE IS SPONSORED BY

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Dear IACLE Members, 

We have had a great response from our members for our upcoming 4th IACLE World Congress and look forward to sharing more exciting details over the coming weeks. The WC4 Team will be in touch with registered members over the next few weeks regarding travel stipend applications. 

The 4th IACLE World Congress will take place at Conference Aston in Birmingham, UK, from 5-8 June 2023 and is timed to precede the British Contact Lens Association’s (BCLA) 2023 Clinical Conference & Exhibition in Manchester (9-11 June 2023).

Congress fees for IACLE members are free of charge (worth over $1,400 per person) thanks to the generous support of our industry sponsors. This includes:

• Participation on all four days, including the workshops, plenary sessions, and keynote presentations (normally $525)
• Four nights’ hotel accommodation, including buffet breakfast (normally $165 per night per room, based upon two people sharing a room). Attendees who would prefer a single occupancy room will pay a supplement of $70 per night. 
• Lunch on all four days (normally $35 per day)
• Gala dinner ticket (normally $75)
• Luxury coach travel from Birmingham to Manchester in time for the BCLA (normally $35)

IACLE members will also receive an exclusive registration rate for the BCLA’s Clinical Conference & Exhibition (full registration rate is £750 and IACLE members pay £500). Look out for a discount code in the coming weeks. 

Registration

There is still time to register for WC4. However, applications for travel stipends have now closed:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWVJSFX

Workshops

The workshops will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday of the Congress. There will be eight 90-minute workshops on both days with approximately 15 delegates rotating through each workshop. 

Schedule

• Monday 5 June – welcome lunch, plenary session, keynote speaker, drinks reception, tour of Aston University’s School of Optometry 
• Tuesday 6 June – hands-on workshops
• Wednesday 7 June – hands-on workshops, Gala Dinner
• Thursday 8 June – plenary session, keynote speaker, transport to Manchester for BCLA attendees

A fully detailed program will be shared with attendees in the coming weeks.  

Abstracts

We have also had a great response to our call for abstracts. Thank you to all our members who have submitted an abstract. The WC4 Team will be in touch over the coming weeks to let you know if your abstract has been successful. Abstract submissions are now closed.

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For more information visit our website

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Proud Sponsors of the 4th IACLE World Congress on Contact Lens Education