Myopia Management

To be offered during Fall 2023 – 1 credit (1.5 ECTS credit)

Course Description

Jerusalem Multidisciplinary College (JMC) presents a brand-new online course on the current hottest topic in optometry!

Instead of just correcting myopia, learn how to adopt prescribing strategies that are able to correct myopia AND manage its progression.

The course is intended for optometrists who would like to manage myopia in their practice. It will cover the epidemiology of myopia, and clinical management strategies to slow myopic progression and axial elongation.

The course will be presented via 3 live Zoom sessions and 10 hours of asynchronous content.

Live Zoom Session Dates -
November 07th 03:30-05:00 P.M. IST
December 19th 02:15-05:00 P.M. IST
January 16th 03:30-05:00 P.M. IST

All lectures are recorded to facilitate flexible study and will be available for review for a two-year period.

Learning Objectives

Attendees completing this course will be able to:

Communicate risk factors for myopia development and progression based on current evidence to parents and patients
Describe various strategies to slow myopia development and progression
Apply various interventions to slow myopic progression and axial elongation
Assess patients as individuals to determine the best modality or combinations of modalities for that individual based on a number of factors given the best available evidence
Monitor myopia progression of patients receiving care
Describe modalities currently available as well as those in development in the management of myopia
Implement myopia management strategies into an existing practice from patient education, staff education, marketing

Topics

Normal eye growth
What is myopia? Definitions
Axial Elongation
Demographics of Myopia – Around the world
Long-term risks of longer axial length/Myopia as a disease
Risk factors for development of myopia
Monitoring myopia development
Retarding the incidence of myopia/Myopia Prevention
Slowing axial elongation/myopia progression after it develops

- Low-dose Atropine
- OrthoKeratology
- Soft Multifocal Lenses
- Specially designed spectacle lenses
- Red Light treatment
- Combination treatments

Candidacy
Putting it all into practice
Case Presentations
The Future of Myopia Management
New techniques
Myopia prevention

Course Requirements and Assessments

For those wanting academic credit, the grade will be determined based on 20% participation (including viewing pre-recorded modules and completing post-viewing assignments), 20% case study analysis, 60% final exam (online).

Course Instructors

Dr. Michael Lipson

Dr. Michael Lipson is recently retired from his position as an optometrist/associate professor at University of Michigan, department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science. His clinical practice involves specialty contact lenses: OrthoK, keratoconus, post-corneal transplant, post-refractive surgery and severe dry eye patients. He has published peer-reviewed clinical research studies on OrthoK, vision-related quality of life, myopia management, and new lens designs. He lectures nationally and internationally on those same topics. Dr. Lipson developed a validated questionnaire to assess vision-related quality of life for all types of vision correction, including OrthoK. He has authored chapters in textbooks on OrthoK, scleral lenses, and general contact lens topics. Dr. Lipson is the author of the book “Contemporary OrthoKeratology”. He also is a reviewer for a number of highly respected peer-reviewed journals in the ophthalmic community. He is a consultant to the specialty contact lens industry emphasizing OrthoK education. He is on the GPLI Advisory Board, served as Vice-President of the Scleral Lens Education Society, and served on the Scleral Lens Education Society Board for many years.

Prof. Ariela Gordon-Shaag – Guest lecturer

Prof. Gordon-Shaag completed her BA at Columbia University with a major in Chemistry (1990, Magna Cumme Laude). She earned her M.Sc. and PhD (2002) at the Hebrew University in genetics and molecular biology. Prof. Gordon-Shaag's interest in vision science developed during her post-doctoral training at the University of Washington at the Hebrew University where she studied phototransduction.

In 2007, she established the Master's program in Optometry, at Jerusalem Multidisciplinary College (JMC), and was the Director of that program until 2013. Prof. Gordon-Shaag was the Chairperson of the Dept. of Optometry Jerusalem Multidisciplinary College , Jerusalem, Israel, from 2014-2023. She recently was appointed Chair of the Interdisciplinary Faculty for Sciences, Health and Society.

Her current research interests are in cornea and keratoconus and the etiology of myopia. Gordon-Shaag has published many scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals on these topics. She has received a grant from the Binational Science Foundation to study "Environmental and Behavioral Factors Associated with Myopia."

Membership in Professional Organizations.
Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and Optics.
Israel Society of Vision and Eye Research.

Dr. Lisa Ostrin – Guest lecturer

Lisa Ostrin is an Associate Professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry. She received a BA in Studio Art at the University of Texas at Austin and then completed an OD/PhD at the University of Houston College of Optometry. She went to Johns Hopkins University for post-doctoral research in low vision and retinal prosthetics. She then worked as a Clinician Researcher at the University of California Berkeley, with a focus on myopia. She returned to the University of Houston to continue her work in myopia, conducting studies in both human participants and animal models. She is interested in environmental factors and visual cues that contribute to myopia onset and progression, as well as in the development and testing of novel myopia treatments. In addition to research, Dr. Ostrin teaches gross and ocular anatomy and has authored a book, Anatomy of the Human Eye: a Coloring Atlas. Dr. Ostrin is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, Gold Fellow of ARVO, a recipient of the American Optometric Foundation Ezell Fellowship, and a recipient of the Cora and J Davis Armistead Teaching Award.

Prof. Oriel Spierer - Guest lecturer

Professor Oriel Spierer received his M.D. from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. He did his Residency in Ophthalmology at the Tel-Aviv Medical Center, followed by two fellowships at the prestigious Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in the USA. During that time, he was also on the Faculty of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida, USA. Prof. Spierer's training included Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus as well as Cornea, Cataract and Refractive Surgery. With his return to Israel, he joined the Ophthalmology Division at the Tel-Aviv Medical Center. Since 2017, he has been the Director of the Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Unit at the E. Wolfson Medical Center. He is well experienced in complex pediatric ophthalmology pathologies, strabismus surgeries, and anterior segment surgeries.
Prof. Spierer published over 60 scientific papers and has more than 70 presentations at national and international conferences. During the years he won several academic awards and grants. He is an Editorial Board Member of two well-known ophthalmological journals and a reviewer for more than 20 professional ophthalmological journals. Prof. Spierer has an appointment of Clinical Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University.

Cost of registration: approximately 175$ (680 NIS).

Please note: All prices are in New Israeli Shekels (NIS).

Click here to register for the course

For registration assistance, please contact: international@jmc.ac.il