GlobalCONTACT
ISSUE 02/2024

Overview

Report: Meetings of ECOO and EAOO in Helsinki // 50th EFCLIN Congress // Company Profile: Valley Contax // Fitting Background: Dropouts // Myths: children and contact lenses // Interview: Roland Fromme

NEWS

October is Contact Lens Safety Month

October is Contact Lens Safety Month

Eye health nonprofit Prevent Blindness has declared October as Contact Lens Safety Month. In a recent announcement, the organization shared that the purpose of the awareness initiative is to educate the public on the proper use of contact lenses, both prescription and cosmetic, and is offering fact sheets, shareable social media graphics, and dedicated web pages to further education…

Awards for eyecare professionals

Awards for eyecare professionals

The nominating period for the second annual Contact Lens Institute (CLI) Culture Awards ends October 1, 2024. The program honors eyecare professionals who foster a positive contact lens culture, exemplifying behaviors and actions that elevate patient experiences and business success. Individuals within the U.S. and Canadian eyecare community who prescribe or support soft contact lenses are eligible…

Sicht.Kontakte 2024

Sicht.Kontakte 2024

Today Sicht.Kontakte 2024 start in Essen, Germany. VDCO, IVBS and ZVA, three contact lens and optometry associations, are jointly inviting from September 27 to 29. The audience can expect a varied lecture program with over 30 specialist lectures and 21 workshops from around 50 speakers. Under the roofs of the “Ruhrturm”, the three-day event will…

Hecht: Investment company becomes new owner

Hecht: Investment company becomes new owner

Hecht Contactlinsen GmbH from Au near Freiburg, which has been owner-managed for 46 years, has completed an eight-month process: In future, the German manufacturer of custom-made, RGP and soft contact lenses will be majority-owned by Novum Capital, an owner-managed investment company from Frankfurt am Main. Hecht describes the change of ownership as “an important prerequisite…

BostonSight held annual FitAcademy retreat

BostonSight held annual FitAcademy retreat

BostonSight, a nonprofit eye healthcare organization that advances the treatment of diseased and damaged corneas and dry eyes held their annual FitAcademy Retreat for Cornea and Contact Lens Residents and Fellows at New England College of Optometry (NECO) in Boston, September 13-14, 2024. This year marked the sixth iteration of FitAcademy, an educational retreat for…


ARTICLES

LenzBox: Innovative contact lens cleaning

LenzBox: Innovative contact lens cleaning

Efficient contact lens care for soft contact lenses is particularly important for long-term and safe contact lens wear. At the last Opti Munich 2024, a start-up presented a completely new system that not only simplifies contact lens care, but also manages the amount of care product used sustainably.

Chat GPT and other AI – a new language for the industry

Chat GPT and other AI – a new language for the industry

An interview with CSEM machine learning expert Philipp Schmid ChatGPT and other AIs have recently caused a furor in virtually all professions where people write, program or design. How much dust are these supposedly general-purpose AIs stirring up in the industry? The general-purpose AIs are kicking up an enormous amount of dust. But unlike 2016,…

Contact Lenses: Enhancing the comfort

Contact Lenses: Enhancing the comfort

The importance of contact lens characterization  Why do wearers consider “soft” contact lenses (CLs) more comfortable than the “rigid” gas permeable (RGP) alternative? Thus, what does “comfort” mean from a scientific point of view? In this short article, we aim to emphasize the significance of meticulously characterizing and monitoring the physical parameters of CL materials…

State of the Art(ificial): Part 2

State of the Art(ificial): Part 2

Understanding Soft Lens Design & Fitting Celebrating 50 years of EFCLIN, urges us to look back – but also gives us a good opportunity to look forward. Artificial intelligence (AI) is getting a lot of attention lately, almost to the point of becoming a fashion statement: everybody is into artificial intelligence, it seems. Several recent…

A historic therapeutic contact lens

A historic therapeutic contact lens

Series on the Roth Collection Contact lenses are not only a valuable visual aid, they were also used soon after their invention as a bandage and, following the successful synthesis of water-retaining plastics, as a drug carrier on the eye. Their ability to compensate for irregular corneal astigmatism was recognized as early as the first…

Erik Larson: The Problem ­Solver

Erik Larson: The Problem ­Solver

A visit to Larsen Equipment Design Together with his son Andrew, Erik Larsen shoulders a steel bar and carries it into his workshop. It smells of oil and metal here. A whole battalion of machinery is installed here. Large, old, new and small. And the really big ones, which easily have a footprint of 6…



LETTER

Employee, where are you?

Employee, where are you?

Are you having trouble finding employees? And to keep them? There’s a specter haunting the EU – and unfortunately, it’s very real: The shortage of skilled workers. And it’s particularly noticeable in some EU countries. That’s because demographic change is in full swing here – and often more advanced than in other regions of the world.