The National and International Congress of Optometry in Ecuador took place on October 6-8th. IMI Ambassadors from Latin America dedicated an entire module to myopia management. Dr Edgar Davila presented an introductory lecture on myopia management, and, together with Dr Ariolfo Vazquez, conducted a workshop on how to implement orthokeratology for myopia control. Dr Vazquez also provided a lecture on how to analyze topography data to monitor orthokeratology results. Dr Nina Tahhan delivered an introductory presentation about the IMI and its role in providing practitioners with resources to make myopia management easier in practice.
IMI Ambassadors met with the Vice President of Ecuador Dr Alfredo Borrero, Dr Sandy Block from the Word Council of Optometry, Dr Luisa Casas from the IAPB (also an IMI ambassador), Dr Carlos Chacon President elect ALDOO, and President of the Federation of Optometrists of Ecuador, to discuss the worldwide situation of vision problems. Together, the objectives of the WCO, the IAPB Insight 2030 objectives, and the IMI objectives to raise awareness about myopia as a public health problem were discussed.
On World Vision Day, a webinar is being organized in LATAM Myopia management group, where representatives of organizations advocating for visual problems will speak. IMI objectives and practitioner resources available to ECP’s will be presented in addition to promotion of the commitment of Latin American Ambassadors to continue to educate and advocate for the implementation of myopia management in their region.