In partnership With CooperVision

“The research, the technology is there to manage myopia,” states Dr. Lyerly at the top of the episode. “The hardest part becomes talking to parents and changing that mindset for what is status quo for prescribing.” Our guests on this episode are Dr. Justin Kwan, Senior Manager, Myopia Management at CooperVision and Dr. Stephanie Tsang, practice owner at Golden Vision San Francisco Optometry. Both Dr. Kwan and Dr. Tsang have been practicing myopia management for a decade prior to any FDA approvals for myopia control options, and like Dr. Lyerly they’ve seen that while the available technology has exploded, the patient awareness of this possibility has lagged behind. How do we educate patients and parents effectively?

“It’s very rare in healthcare to be able to provide an immediate benefit, and also a long-term benefit to the patient,” states Dr. Tsang about her passion for prescribing myopia management. As a private practice owner she cares for her patients from childhood through adulthood, and seeing the long term impacts of keeping prescriptions low and reducing the risks of side effects of high myopia including retinal detachment, glaucoma, and myopic maculopathy has fostered a strong sense of duty1.  “Myopia management is not new; there are decades of research available,” she tells patients, “What’s new is how accessible the technology is.” 

Challenges that Doctors Face When Presenting Myopia Management

Dr. Tsang shares that when you enter an existing practice, sometimes the biggest hurdle is simply change. Practices typically have been approaching eyecare with glasses and contact lens options for decades, and to take a dramatically new approach by talking about slowing down myopic changes takes a total mindset shift from patients, staff, and the other doctors in the practice.  She talks to parents and her colleagues with a focus on what’s happening to the eye’s shape instead of simply the diopter value of the prescription. Axial length is a foundation of her conversations, and showing parents a picture of a normal eye compared with an elongated eye with just a basic diagram is extremely meaningful. Her approach to parents is very simple: “prescription increased, and this is concerning because the axial length is now longer.” 

Dr. Kwan advises against any negative framing of the conversation that could cause fear or discomfort. Throwing out retinal detachment and glaucoma risk factor data can scare patients which actually leads to lack of trust in the doctor/patient relationship. 

What do you do when a parent pushes back? We talk through examples of how you would navigate these common exam room convos:

“Myopia isn’t a big deal; my kid can just get LASIK when they are older.”

“Our goal is to make sure your child is a candidate to get LASIK. If the prescription gets too high, LASIK won’t be a treatment option. We need to help slow things down so that they are the best possible candidate for LASIK when they are old enough!” 

“My kid is too young to wear contact lenses.”

Dr. Tsang, Dr. Kwan, and Dr. Lyerly all share that a great approach is to talk to parents about the young patients in the practice that have been successful wearing contact lenses. CooperVision has also created great video content on the MiSight® YouTube channel  featuring real patients sharing their contact lens insertion and removal...