The International Myopia Institute (IMI) has formed seven new taskforces to tackle areas of myopia not addressed in its first set of ground-breaking white papers published a year ago.  

Each new assessment area has been identified as an area of urgent need, said IMI chair, Professor Serge Resnikoff, in Healio’s Primary Optometry News. “Myopia needed to be recognised as a public health issue if there was to be a change in the approach to this condition, and only a collaborative effort across all eye care professions and researchers could bring this about.” 

Describing the taskforces’ objectives in the same article, Assistant Professor Monica Jong, IMI’s executive manager, said, “The impact of myopia [taskforce] will examine the cost of myopia, its associated ocular complications, social impact and myopia management; paediatric high myopia will focus on children who are already highly myopic at very young ages and their management; high myopia in adults and their associated complications will examine the evidence for managing progressing adult high myopia and the management pathologic myopia; while preferred practice patterns will assess and rank the evidence for each form of myopia intervention to inform management across different settings with various levels of access to interventions.” 

The other taskforces will focus on environmental risk factors, accommodation and binocular vision and “yearly digest”, updating the research for each IMI white paper.  

“These areas are important to further provide the evidence and inform practitioners, public health workers, peak health bodies and policy makers,” Jong said.  

The original IMI white papers, initiated by the Brien Holden Vision Institute, are now available in English, French, Chinese and Spanish and will soon be available in Vietnamese, Nepalese and Swedish.