News Blinks — January 27, 2017

Here’s a quick look at some industry news you may have missed this week. 

• The American Academy of Optometry (AAO) is inviting submissions of potential courses for Academy 2017 Chicago until 5pm EST on January 31, 2017. AAO is mainly looking for new and innovative courses, as well as novel topics.
• The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, OH recently announced its 2016 partnership Scholars selected in collaboration with Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), and Foundation Fighting Blindness and University of Oxford. Dr. David M. Gamm from the University of Wisconsin-Madison was named the 2016 Gund-Harrington Scholar. His work reportedly focuses on restoring sight through the use of human pluripotent stem cells in individuals suffering from retinal degenerative disease.
• Massachusetts Eye and Ear launched a five-year initiative with the Bay State Council of the Blind to help ensure persons with visual disabilities have full and equal opportunity to the best possible care. The initiative includes improving patient and visitor forms and publications, specialized staff training, and enhancing signage.
• The University of Alabama at Birmingham and sports equipment company VICIS are teaming up to develop more effective football helmets to the marketplace, in an effort to tackle the concussion crisis in American football.
• Prevent Blindness announced in just one week, they have reached more than 23,000 signatures for their See Now campaign — a global effort to raise awareness for the importance of healthy eyesight, and advocate for government funding for vision and eye health programs.
• The recent issue of the Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) features a mini-symposium with new techniques and treatments related to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), including a look at using telemedicine and bevacizumab treatments.
• For the third consecutive year, ClearVision Optical has been named one of 2017’s Best Companies to Work for in New York State.
• Wagner + Kühner GmbH was recently voted Best Optical Supplier by opticians and optical professionals in Germany, based on categories such as product quality and customer service (see press release below). Wagner + Kühner eyewear collections are distributed by Mosaic Eyewear in the U.S.
• Silouette's neubau eyewear recently had its debut at Berlin Fashion Week by teaming up with German brand Hien Le for his autumn/winter 2017 collection.
• New research from the American Geophysical Union calls on publishers of scholarly journals to take additional steps to get more women to serve as peer reviewers of manuscripts, as a recent study finds women across all age groups have fewer opportunities than men to participate in this career-building activity.
• Researchers from Michigan Medicine and the American Diabetes Association have teamed up to craft a new position statement on the prevention, treatment and management of diabetic neuropathy, with recommendations for all physicians.
• And a new study has found type 2 diabetic Hispanic-Americans patients not proficient in English were much less likely to adhere to newly prescribed medications as directed. The study calls for more to be done “to improve adherence to newly-prescribed medications among Latino patients at all levels of English proficiency.”

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