College of Optometrists

Abstract:

Headaches are one of the commonest symptoms that optometrists encounter, and the lecture will summarise how optometrists can help their patients who are headache sufferers. Broadly, this help can be classified under two main headings which will be followed in the lecture. First, optometrists can often make a preliminary diagnosis based on the characteristics of the headaches. This will help the optometrist to advise the patient on whether the headaches warrant further investigation and if so by whom and with what urgency. Second, optometrists can identify the minority of headaches that have a visual origin and can prescribe an appropriate intervention.
 

Learning Objectives:

• to enable delegates to understand the terminology, aetiology, diagnosis, and classification of headaches
• to give optometrists the information needed to diagnose migraine
• to ensure that optometrists understand the role of visual factors in headaches
• to give delegates the information they need to diagnose and treat headaches of optometric origin
• to enable optometrists to fulfil a role as members of the multi-disciplinary team involved in the management of headache.

Biography:

Professor Bruce Evans is Director of Research at the Institute of Optometry and a Visiting Professor to City University and to London South Bank University. He is a Fellow (by examination) of the College of Optometrists and holds their higher qualifications of Diploma in Contact Lens Practice and Diploma in Orthoptics. He was awarded Fellowship of the British Contact Lens Association in 2006. He has over 195 published papers, has given more than 250 invited lectures, and has authored five books on binocular vision and two on dyslexia and vision. He also has an optometric practice in Brentwood, Essex.

Abstract:

With a current UK prevalence level of around 25% in young adolescents, myopia is a condition which overall accounts for around 35% of an optometrist’s work load. The objective of the lecture is to review the principal features of contemporary clinical research and practice and place it in the context of general UK eye care delivery. The approach will be novel and provide the optometrist with a who? when? and what? analysis of the topic – that is, a format that facilitates responses to the questions typically asked on a day-to-day basis by parents and young adolescents. Juvenile onset myopia (JoM) will be the principal class discussed although recent issues concerning the referral of early onset myopia will be included. Work on ocular biometric parameters for myopia has confirmed that the major structural correlate of JoM is longitudinal elongation of the posterior vitreous chamber and that, in the developing eye, axial elongation is the principal precursor to subsequent compensatory changes in the architecture of the globe. Understanding the biometry of myopia assists in understanding the nature of ocular abnormalities associated principally with myopia of more than 6D. In this regard recent MRI techniques of 3-D whole-eye imaging have provided special insight into the structural substrates of the myopic eye. An account will be given of how the imaging technique will extend very significantly our understanding of how the eye stretches in myopia. It is emphasised that refraction at age 5 years-of-age and family history still remain the principal predictors of JoM. Although the role of genetics in JoM is equivocal, much recent progress has been made on the genetic characteristics of high myopia (i.e. >6D). Three aspects of the prevention and management of JoM in children will be reviewed: first, those using optical appliances such as the progressive addition spectacle lens and contact lenses (to correct differentially central and peripheral refraction), second those involving the pharmaceutical management of myopia and the third aspect will concern behavioural/environmental aspects and their role in the development of JoM with particular emphasis on education and urbanisation and associated aspects of outdoor activity.

Learning Objectives:

1: To appreciate that the increasing prevalence of juvenile-onset myopia is a global phenomenon and to appraise current European epidemiology studies.
2: To understand the technology of new 3-D MRI methods of imaging anterior and posterior structural substrates of the myopic eye.
3: To identify the principal chromosomes in genetic studies of high myopia and comprehend the nature of gene-environment interactions in juvenile-onset myopia.
4: To recognize the limitations of putative pharmaceutical methods of controlling the progression of juvenile-onset myopia.
5: To extend existing skills and knowledge of central refractive correction to peripheral correction and understand the significance of contemporary research indicating that peripheral error may have great significance in the onset and development of myopia.

Biography:

Bernard Gilmartin is Professor of Optometry in the School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK, and was the former editor of Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics (1987 – 2000), the academic journal of the College of Optometrists (CoO). He was awarded a First Class Honours degree in optometry from City University, London, in 1968 and following General Optical Council (GOC) registration, returned to City to complete a PhD. A further year was spent at City as a lecturer, followed by two years in full-time optometric practice and a lectureship at Aston in 1974. Following a Senior Lectureship (1988) and Readership (1994), a personal Chair in Optometry was awarded in 1998. He completed a 5 year term as Director of Research for the School of Life and Health Sciences in 2006. His main teaching area is Ophthalmic Drugs and principle research interests concern the ocular response to sustained near vision, refractive error development (principally juvenile-onset myopia) and ocular biometry.
Over a hundred and twenty research papers have been published together with four book Chapters and two edited books. Bernard Gilmartin was a senior examiner for the CoO Professional Qualifying Examinations for 30 years and acts as an educationalist for General Optical Council (GOC) Institutional visits. He has contributed to several GOC, CoO and UK Government’s Higher Education teaching and research Panels. He was a member of the HEFC QAA benchmarking panel for optometry in 2001 and was a member of the Allied Health Professions and Studies Panel for the 2008 national Research Assessment Exercise. Bernard Gilmartin was elected to a Fellowship of the American Academy of Optometry in 1990, to a Life Fellowship of the CoO in 2000 and was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal from Aston University in July 2009 for outstanding and sustained contributions to the University. Presentations have been made at many national and international optometric, ophthalmological and optical society Conferences. Bernard is currently Chair of the College’s Research Committee and a co-opted member of the College’s Board of Trustees.