The Authors
Bonnie Boshart, BBA
Finance and Special Project Officer
Alisa Sivak, MA (Ed.)
Communications Coordinator
The History: A Silicone Hydrogels Revolution
In 2001 the Centre for Contact Lens Research, in Canada, and the Vision Cooperative Research Centre, in Australia, teamed up to develop a site designed to educate eye care practitioners worldwide about a novel material that was revolutionizing the contact lens industry. Over the next decade, the website brought together contributions from leading experts in the field, each of whom was able to explore different aspects of lenses made from these materials.
Stepping Back to Consider The Big Picture
With silicone hydrogel materials now an integral part of the landscape of contact lenses, the Centre for Contact Lens Research has teamed up once again—this time with the Brien Holden Vision Institute, Australia—to bring a much wider range of contact lens-related information to practitioners worldwide. The Silicone Hydrogels Website will still be accessible via a link at the bottom of the homepage page.
Designing Contact Lens Update
Our editorial board has put a great deal of effort into considering what practitioners need, consulting key opinion leaders in the field and reflecting on the needs of practitioners worldwide.
“I pine for the days of unbiased, independent research,” said one optometrist sitting across the table from us as part of our advisory group for this website. That comment embodies the spirit of Contact Lens Update, as it did for the Silicone Hydrogels Website.
We all know that the world of contact lenses and related products is dominated by a very small number of key manufacturers, and that a large percentage of research in the field is, out of necessity, funded by those manufacturers. It’s in the nature of clinical research. But it certainly doesn’t mean that the developmental and clinical research being performed around the world is biased. The research teams exploring the science behind safe, comfortable and convenient contact lens wear are passionately impartial about the field, and as such are regarded as specialists by the companies funding their research. We view our role as connecting you with those experts via Contact Lens Update.
There are multiple venues for getting caught up on this research, if you have time to attend conferences and scour journals for topics of interest. But we believe that most eye care professionals don’t have the time to dedicate to staying on top of the research that should ideally be informing and shaping their interactions with patients. That’s where Contact Lens Update comes in.
What you’ll find at Contact Lens Update
Come here to read about the latest in contact lens-related research. We have our fingers on the pulse of what’s going on in the world of contact lens research, so you don’t need to.
Contact Lens Update will bring you research commentary in the form of concise and accessible editorials, noteworthy conference posters and highlights – all written in a way that highlights practical, clinical applications.
Over time, our resource library will expand to include practical resources, including:
- tools for communicating with patients
- an image library
- instructional videos
- grading scales
- calculators and conversion charts
- up-to-date reference guides
We’ll also continue to highlight clinical insights submitted by those of you working with patients, and encourage you to respond to our reader poll, or to contact the editorial board if you have an interesting case to share.
We look forward to sharing this space with you.
