With Myopia Awareness Week in full swing, United Kingdom (UK)-based Myopia Focus has launched a new digital platform for eyecare practices: the Myopia Focus Tool Creator.
The intent: For ECPs to create and embed interactive myopia education tools directly into their websites.
Very cool! Can you tell me more about Myopia Focus?
Established in 2021 and led by a team of myopia specialists, Myopia Focus is a myopia awareness and education initiative focused on the management and support of better long-term eye health for pediatric patients.
How it’s doing this: By offering interactive, visual tools to help optometry practices communicate the impact of myopia to parents and patients. Among the content covered:
- Myopia education: definition, causes, symptoms, risks, management, and treatment options
- Awareness campaigns and petitions for national myopia management funding in the UK
- How to find myopia specialists
- Latest news and education on myopia management
And for practitioners?
The initiative invites myopia specialists and other eyecare professionals (ECPs) to join its MyopiaFocus practitioner community in raising awareness and providing education to pediatric patients and their parents.
With three tiers of involvement available—member, supporter, or contributor—ECPs can gain access to an exclusive practitioner hub as well as a range of varying benefits:
- Education marketing resources
- Training webinars
- Marketing badges and practice listings on the MyopiaFocus myopia provider page
See here for a complete breakdown. And check out other ways ECPs can get involved via the initiative’s Practitioner Hub.
Sounds like a worthy cause—but is this exclusive just to ECPs in the UK?
No! In fact, myopia-focused ECPs in the United States (and other countries) are also invited to join the cause and have their clinical practices listed on the Myopia Focus website—for free.
Why target U.S. practitioners: The initiative noted that 50% of its search traffic actually comes from the United States, so the addition of more U.S. ECP registrations and subsequent free practice listing on the Myopia Focus website is highly encouraged.
- Check out all myopia specialists locations affiliated with Myopia Focus.
And is that new digital platform you mentioned also available for these ECPs?
Indeed. The platform is freely available for anyone to use, though Myopia Focus does encourage ECPs to become supporters and contributors.
Nice! Tell me more about it.
The Myopia Focus Tool Creator is a new platform enabling ECPs to create and embed interactive, customizable myopia education tools directly into their own websites.
The intent is not to replace clinical advice—but for the tools to “operate as educational resources, designed to support conversations, improve understanding and help parents take the next step towards seeking professional support,” the initiative noted.
So how can ECPs utilize them?
For all digital tools: A web-based dashboard allows practices to configure and edit the language, text, and colors before embedding them into their websites (via an HTML code).
Ideally, these customizable tools are designed to appear and feel like part of a practice’s own website, leading to increased engagement and more appointment bookings for at-risk myopic patients.
Now let’s get a look at these tools.
Featuring an expanding suite of educational, myopia-targeted widgets and calculators, the platform’s tools include:
- Axial length (AL) estimators
- Educational calculators providing estimated AL values based on published research models
- See here for a look at how this works.
- Educational calculators providing estimated AL values based on published research models
- AL tracking charts
- Tools allowing ECPs and parents to visualize AL changes over time against reference growth data
- “Every diopter matters” risk communication tools
- Explains how increasing myopia levels may increase lifetime health risks
- Myopia vision simulators
- Helps parents visualize the impact of increasing myopia levels
- Myopia risk assessment tools
- Simplified, interactive questionnaire for explaining childhood myopia risk factors
Go on …
Other tools also consist of a product hotspot—giving practices and companies control to create interactive product images with clickable information points—as well as a “before-and-after” slider that offers a side-by-side comparison showcasing various glasses types or lens finishes.
Can I get a visual of how these tools might appear on a practice’s website?
You bet. An interactive demo of how these tools will appear on a web interface can be found here.
And what clinical validation are they supported by?
Per Myopia Focus: The platform was developed by internal members based on published research data and established clinical concepts. See here for a look at a few recent myopia clinical reports.
Plus, accompanying methodology documents are available to outline the evidence base and assumptions behind the models used in the tools.
… for example?
Included in the platform tool arsenal is a Risk Calculator, designed to estimate a child’s risk for developing or progressing myopia based on established behavioral, genetic, and environmental factors.
The calculator is based on a rule-based, weighted scoring model—derived from those aforementioned “well-established” literature findings—that combines various known risk factors, such as age, parental myopia, screen exposure, time spent outdoors, existing myopia status, and (optionally) refractive error or AL.
For each of these risk factors: The model assigns a relative weighting based on the strength of evidence and calculates a composite score that maps to their respective level of risk (low, moderate, or high).
- Parental myopia (high weight)
- Outdoor time (high weight [protective])
- Screen time (moderate weight)
- Age (moderating factor)
Got it. Any specific notes to keep in mind with this?
A few … Myopia Focus emphasizes that the calculator is not intended to offer a diagnosis or predict individual outcomes. Also:
- The model isn’t a predictive clinical alogithm—rather, it reflects population-level associations (not individual outcomes).
- Those aforementioned weightings are evidence-based and not developed from a single regression model
Duly noted. Lastly, how can I get started accessing these tools?
ECPs can create an account, customize their preferred tools, and start embedding them on their practice website—all by simply clicking here.
And important to note: The platform will continue to expand with more tools, educational resources, comparison features, and other customization options to be added in the future.