Children's Vision Lab at NECO

The Bonnie Strickland award nominations are now open! See the linktree in our bio for more details on how to nominate an individual or group

This week NECO hosted the Vision Health Equity Summit to increase awareness of the importance of vision as a component of health equity, and health equity as a whole. Many experts in health equity, public health, and eye care as a whole gave key insights about the pressing issues in vision health and how vision loss creates societal inequities. Dr. Vera-Diaz highlighted the importance of vision health equity in the context of Myopia, with its increasing prevalence and high treatment costs. She discussed the need for research and access to treatments to keep up with the number of individuals affected by Myopia. Dr Vera-Diaz touched on this in her talk, stating that “There is clear evidence of a myopia epidemic, making it the most significant vision threat of the century. With high myopia already being the leading cause of visual impairments in working adults, we are seeing how myopia in children negatively affects them throughout their lives.” Due to the limited public awareness about myopia, people with avoidable vision loss are often not aware of the available treatments, and those who are are faced with medical bills and long wait times, as treatments are often not covered by insurance. At this event sponsored by coopervision, a new initiative was announced to make myopia management more accessible to under resourced children which we are very happy to see. This was a very special event, and we hope it will be the beginning of many improvements in health equity for children and our patients!