Pediatric Screening
A new policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes the importance of including instrument-based devices for pediatric vision screening for infants as young as 12 months, which should be repeated from ages two through five. The updated schedule also recommends direct visual acuity testing for ages four and five, and even cooperative three-year-olds.
Medical Devices
The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama includes a two-year suspension of the 2.3% medical device excise tax. According to the agreement, the medical device excise tax will not be eligible for reinstatement until the 2018 fiscal year.
Dry Eye
A study recently published in the Journal of Pain found a link between dry eye and chronic pain syndromes. Researchers at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute evaluated 154 dry eye patients and found they reported higher levels of ocular and non-ocular pain associated with chronic pain syndromes, and had lower scores on depression and quality-of-life indices. The findings suggest a multidisciplinary approach used for chronic pain treatment may also benefit patients with dry eye.
Social Interaction
When pairs of study participants held each other’s gaze, researchers at the National Institute of Physiological Science noted a synchronization of eye-blinks and enhanced inter-brain synchronization in the right inferior frontal gyrus. The findings suggest mutual eye contact might be a crucial component for human face-to-face social interactions.
