Documentary on vision can inspire doctors, educate patients

Blair Wong

LAS VEGAS – An optician involved in the making of the PBS documentary, Sight: The Story of Vision, hopes the film inspires creativity and helps eye care providers “feel great” about what they do for their patients.

Blair Wong, who served as an advisor for the documentary, showed excerpts of the film to attendees here at Vision Expo West.

The film, which is available in 13 languages, was released in October 2016, was directed by Kris Koenig and is narrated by Sir Elton John.

“Kris Koenig realized that by telling the story of vision he could have a global effect,” Wong said. “This documentary is about me and about you.”

In the film, professors of ophthalmology described the anatomy of the eye and how vision is produced, discussing light, the lens, the retina and photoreceptors.

The late Brien A. Holden PhD, DSc, OAM, and Kovin Naidoo, OD, MPH, PhD, FAAO, discussed the global challenge of uncorrected refractive error.

“It is the leading cause of vision impairment in the world and the second leading cause of blindness in the world,” Naidoo said in the film.

Eli Peli, OD, discussed how the invention of the Gutenberg printing press increased the need to read and, hence, the need for spectacles.

Costa CEO Holly Rush noted how wearing glasses became acceptable with help from the movies.

“People buy glasses just to wear fashionable frames,” she said.

Experts in the film explained myopia and hyperopia, the use of contact lenses, the prevalence of cataract surgery, drug-eluting contact lenses and stem cell therapy to replace damaged photoreceptor cells in age-related macular degeneration.

PAGE BREAK

Monica Jong, OD, PhD, of the Brien Holden Vision Institute, explained how high myopia increases the risk of cataract nearly three times and glaucoma by about five times, and that myopic macular degeneration is the No. 1 cause of new cases of blindness in Shanghai.

“Kids with more severe nearsightedness are being set up for glaucoma and retinal detachment later in life,” Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD, added.

The highest rates of myopia are seen in Asians and Latin Americans, according to Rohit Varma, MD, in the film.

“The increase in prevalence in the last few decades points to a strong environmental component,” Don Mutti, OD, PhD, added. “The amount of time kids spend reading, doing homework, using the computer doesn’t affect it at all. The most influence is how much time is spent outdoors. It’s been found that kids who spent more time outdoors had a lower chance of developing myopia.”

The film also profiled a young woman with retinitis pigmentosa who had about 10% of her central vision. She also has Usher’s syndrome, so she has been slowly losing her vision and hearing since she was a teenager. At the age of 36, she just climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

“If I had to choose, I would rather go deaf, hands down,” she said.

A number of vision care companies supported the making of the film. Koenig’s film, 400 Years of the Telescope, was the most widely viewed PBS documentary, and Sight is expected to surpass that, said Wong, who is the founding chair of the Eye Health Technology Department at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology and an assistant professor of optics at the New England College of Optometry.

“I hope the third of the film that you’ve seen [here] helps you to walk away feeling great about what you do for your patients,” he told attendees. “Take what you learned from this film and educate others.

“Even if it’s running on a continuous loop in your office, [give your patients] a better appreciation for what you do and a better appreciation for their vision.” – by Nancy Hemphill, ELS, FAAO

Reference:

Wong B. Sight – The Story of Vision. Presented at Vision Expo West; Las Vegas; Sept. 13-16, 2017.

Disclosure: Wong reported no relevant financial disclosures.