‘Let’s get comfortable talking about contact lens discomfort’

The latest BCLA webinar will urge eye care professionals to proactively address the issue of contact lens discomfort in practice as part of a drive to reduce drop-out rates.

Titled ‘Optimising contact lens comfort for wearer success’ – the session – sponsored by Alcon – will be held online from 6.30pm on Tuesday, November 23 and will be presented by Professor Philip Morgan.

He will discuss how eye care practitioners can go about reducing the number of people discontinuing contact lens wear by proactively addressing the issue of contact lens discomfort in practice.

The session will also ask which change to the contact lens landscape could have the most dramatic impact on wearer satisfaction in the coming years.

Professor Morgan said: “When confronted with this question, ECPs tend to migrate to sophisticated improvements in contact lens designs such as a novel multifocal lens or some form of complex ‘smart’ contact lens.

“Of course, such innovations would open up new opportunities and probably drive new fits. But the most important change which would increase the number of wearers is largely in the hands of ECPs: reducing the number of contact lens wearers who stop using their lenses. In other words, to minimise ‘drop-outs’ or ‘discontinuations’.

“ECPs have considerable influence over this phenomenon and the key to success in this area is to understand the key influence of contact lens discomfort (CLD) on drop-out rates, to appreciate the causes of CLD and to then consider how it can best be managed.”

Philip Morgan is a Fellow of the BCLA. He is Professor of Optometry, Head of Optometry, Deputy Head of the Division of Pharmacy and Optometry, and Director of Eurolens Research at The University of Manchester. His main research interests relate to the clinical performance of contact lenses and he teaches on the same subject area at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

He is President of the International Society for Contact Lens Research and Vice President of the International Association of Contact Lens Educators. He is an honorary member of the UK Association of Contact Lens Manufacturers, a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a member of the UK College of Optometrists.

He has authored over 200 papers, primarily relating to the clinical performance of contact lenses and the nature of the UK and international contact lens markets, and has spoken about his work in more than 30 countries worldwide.

To register for the session, which is worth one interactive CET point and open only to BCLA members, visit www.bcla.org.uk.