Here’s a quick look at some industry news you may have missed this week.
- Bausch + Lomb recently sent out a letter to U.S. retina specialists from U.S. Surgical General Manager and Senior Vice President Andrew Chang highlighting the company's investment in recent retina innovations — such as the recently-launched Illuminated Directional Laser Probe and X Surgical Pack for Stellaris PC — as well as plans for continued growth and innovation.
- Mobile eye care app EyeXam is now offering a dry eye screening tool. The app also makes it easy for a user to search for a nearby eye doctor who can try to determine the cause of their symptoms and develop an appropriate treatment plan.
- UC Irvine Health's Gavin Herbert Eye Institute received a $5 million pledge from Josephine Herbert Gleis to help move current eye research forward at a faster pace and enable the pursuit of innovative new ideas for sight-saving treatments. In 2007, Gleis — who is 104 years old — and her son, Allergan founder Gavin Herbert, made the initial $10 million naming gift to build a state-of-the-art home for Orange County’s only academic eye center.
- Engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed micro-scale solar cells that could be used to power many different types of personal devices, including autofocusing contact lenses.
- A recent study published in JAMA Ophthalmology says children in the first and second years of life are at a higher risk of chemical eye burns from everyday cleaners. Researchers found 1-year-old babies are 1.5 times more likely to have an eye injury than working-age adults.
- A new discovery by scientists at the University of Leicester is helping to shed light on how the eyes of vertebrates have evolved over the years.
- A new study from Dartmouth College says although mobile health (mHealth) is currently experiencing a boom thanks to smartphones and remote health monitoring devices, the full benefits mHealth can bring will not be realized until greater privacy and security measures are put in place.
- The University of Southern California (USC) Center for Body Computing (CBC) recently launched the second annual USC Virtual Reality Hackathon. This year's theme is "Medical Empathy Machine," showcasing the potential of VR to change medicine and patient experience through emotion, compassion and empathy. Coders and designers from around the world are invited to participate with the final winner awarded a $10,000 grant.
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has launched a clinical trial of a vaccine candidate intended to prevent Zika virus infection. The early-stage study will evaluate the experimental vaccine’s safety and ability to generate an immune system response in participants.