- BHVI has introduced Outdoor Time as a new risk factor in its Myopia Calculator, enabling clinicians to better visualise the protective effect of outdoor exposure on myopia development alongside other key risk factors.
- The Brien Holden Vision Institute Myopia Calculator is one of the most widely used clinical tools globally for assessing a child’s risk of developing myopia.
- The calculator is available free of charge to eye care professionals worldwide via bhvi.org.
BHVI has announced a major enhancement to its Myopia Calculator, introducing a new Outdoor Time Filter that enables eye care practitioners to evaluate effects of outdoor time on myopia onset risk and expected rate of progression. The BHVI calculator is developed in partnership with the Shanghai Eye Disease Prevention and Treatment Centre (China), Ulster University (UK), and Linnaeus University (Sweden).
The scientific foundation of BHVI’s modelling draws on peer-reviewed research and developed through international collaboration with the International Myopia Institute (IMI).
Research shows that spending at least two hours outdoors each day is associated with a reduced risk of developing myopia in school-aged children. While gaps remain in defining optimal light parameters (intensity, spectrum, and timing), there is strong consensus supporting increased outdoor activity as an evidence-based strategy to delay myopia onset.1
The BHVI Myopia Calculator is a globally utilised resource, with tens of thousands of users accessing the myopia management tool each month. The calculator provides evidence-based predictions across treatment, prevention and management options, to help eye care practitioners determine the best cause of action for at risk or myopic children and enable informed discussion with parents.
Free to use, the calculator can be accessed at bhvi.org.
ENDS
About BHVI
BHVI is an Australian not-for-profit organisation with an international focus on vision research. To meet identified demands in the ophthalmic field, BHVI invents commercially relevant technologies. BHVI:
- invents innovative designs for contact lenses, spectacle lenses and intraocular lenses that address refractive errors. In the myopia space, BHVI’s designs are at the forefront of worldwide ophthalmic industry efforts to slow the progression of near-sightedness in children, a condition that is sharply rising in prevalence worldwide;
- prototypes these innovative designs;
- validates the wearability and efficacy of those designs through independent clinical trials;
- protects those designs by obtaining patents in markets worldwide; and
- licenses those designs to the market leaders in the ophthalmic industry.