BLOG: Demands on the Soft Contact Lens Wearer in the Digital Age   

Professor James Wolffsohn, Pete Kollbaum and Anne-Madec Hilly

The demands of spending long hours day-in, day-out working on multiple digital devices is posing problems for contact lens wearers across the world, but a session at the forthcoming BCLA Conference will look at ways to improve comfort.

Increased exposure to digital screen is an inevitable consequence of office life in the 21st century and the combination of laptops, tablets and smartphones, coupled with air-conditioned environments, is limiting the success of lenses.

New theories of how best to address the global problem will be presented by Professor James Wolffsohn (pictured below), Pete Kollbaum (pictured right) and Anne-Madec Hilly on the first day of the three-day conference in Liverpool this June.

Professor James Wolffsohn, an Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor at Aston University, said: “The modern soft contact lens wearer is being exposed to challenging environments and activities more than ever before. 

“Contemporary working practices and outside-of-work activities increasingly involve many hours spent looking at multiple digital devices in air conditioned office environments, centrally heated homes and outside in many different conditions.”

The session will examine a wide range of issues created by this challenge to successful contact lens wear and set out potential strategies to minimise symptoms and maximize patients’ contact lens wearing success. 

Among the topics to be discussed will be:

• Demanding digital days – the insights
• What factors come into play?
• What can we do clinically?

The conference will see the BCLA mark its 40th anniversary by looking to the future of contact lenses as well as celebrating the industry’s proud past.

Hundreds of eye care professionals are expected to attend the glittering event, which will include world-renowned guest speakers, hands-on workshops and a spectacular 40th Anniversary dinner.

The conference, due to be held at the ACC in Liverpool on June 9th-11th, is one of the biggest of its kind within the contact lens industry and offers delegates the chance to keep up to date with the latest research, trends and best practice.

Find out more about the Conference here.