NOA 2024: Myopia management starts with education

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With myopia remaining one of the hottest topics in optometry, educating patients and optometric staff alike on treatment options and slowing progression. According to Ashley Wallace-Tucker, OD, FAAO, FSLS, ABO Dipl, looking to the future of treatment and management can inform what optometric staff can do in the present. “I recommend having the patient come back in six months, just for maybe your check in, and just assess what’s going on there and then have the conversation again,” she said. “Then at the year mark, have the conversation again.”

Tucker discussed myopia management in depth during her talk, “Myopia Management: The Past, Present, and Future,” at this year’s National Optometric Association Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which ran from July 10-14. She cited the World Health Organization’s estimation that by 2050, nearly 50% of the world’s population will be myopic. “There’s something happening within our culture, within our homes, that’s creating more myopic individuals and, more concerningly, more myopic children,” Tucker said.

She also overviewed treatment options to slow progression, including MiSight 1 day, a soft contact lens that is the only FDA-approved option specifically targeting myopia progression in children 8 to 12 years of age. Other treatment options include orthokeratology and off-label use of a dilation drop.

Tucker also highlighted the importance of increased time outdoors and early bedtimes for children to reduce their chances of becoming myopic. To implement these lifestyle changes, however, Tucker said that it is important to train staff to address myopia management with parents of pediatric patients. She cited that front desk workers work on the “front lines” in terms of patient education and retention. “If we don’t have them well equipped with the information about myopia and myopia management, we’re going to lose patients,” Tucker said.

To help promote these practices, Tucker said that she centering staff meetings around myopia management to help keep technicians, opticians, and front desk staff alike aligned on the message given to patients. She also added that she aims to have at least 1 or 2 technicians that are well equipped to work with pediatric patients.

Additionally, Tucker’s opticians are trained for how to sell pediatric options for glasses for myopia management when they become available in the US. This anticipated development in myopia management may end up putting some eye care providers at ease. "Some doctors are a little been leary of fitting kids in contact lenses, so to let them know that glasses are on the horizon is usually very well received," Tucker said.

In terms of advocating for eye doctor visits, Tucker said that pediatricians are a great asset to utilize. “We as parents, anything a pediatrician says is gold,” she said, citing that if pediatricians can recommend a visit to the eye doctor for a comprehensive eye exam, half the battle is won.

Currently, Tucker said that lack of awareness and out-of-pocket costs are the major challenges facing myopia management. She said that eye care providers also play an important role in educating parents of the drastic increase in myopia progression current pediatric patients are experiencing compared to their parents. “We have a whole generation of parents that are myopic, but they aren’t as myopic as their children will become,” Tucker said.