WCO CooperVision myopia management app being used in 126 countries
Key takeaways:
- The WCO CooperVision Myopia Management Navigator is being used primarily in the U.S., U.K., Malaysia, India, Australia and Canada.
- The app can assist clinicians just starting out in this realm of practice.
ORLANDO — One year after its launch, the World Council of Optometry CooperVision Myopia Management Navigator app is being used in more than 100 countries spanning the globe, according to the Americas ambassador for the program.
Ashley Wallace Tucker, OD, FAAO, FSLS, ABO Dipl, a partner at Bellaire Family Eye Care and The Contact Lens Institute of Houston, told Healio at Vision Expo East, “Now we know the app is being used in 126 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, India, Australia and Canada the most. We know we need to reach more people. It’s truly comprehensive and has everything you could possibly need in the clinic.”
The navigator, which was launched in April 2024, comprises three pillars: mitigation, measurement and management, Tucker said.
The resource can be “truly game-changing” for anyone interested in myopia management who does not know where to start, she said.
“It can be overwhelming when you start, not really knowing what resources are available, what techniques are available and what advice to give parents and patients,” Tucker said. “[The app] breaks it down easily.”
In 2021 the WCO announced an initiative to hold myopia management as a standard of care, she said.
“So they followed up with this effort to ... create a bridge so doctors could implement myopia management easily in practice,” Tucker said.
Clinicians most frequently ask her how they can get started with myopia management, she said.
“I say, ‘Just start with one patient,’” Tucker said. “Then the next question is, ‘How do I know which path to take — orthokeratology, contact lenses, atropine?’ That exact question is what the navigator is so good at. It tells you: If the patient is this age and does this for a hobby, this is the path you should go. It can be a step-by-step roadmap for doctors who do not know where to get started. Then their confidence will build and they won’t use it necessarily once they’re ingrained in it.”
Additional assets are embedded within the app such as information for practitioners and printable resources to give to patients, she said.
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