New TFOS Workshop Report Available

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New TFOS Workshop Report Available

The Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) announced its new global Workshop, “A Lifestyle Epidemic: Ocular Surface Disease,” which will be published this quarter in The Ocular Surface journal.

“This new TFOS Report focuses on the direct and indirect impacts that everyday lifestyle choices and challenges have on ocular surface health – from screen time, to our beauty routines, to our nutrition, to where we live,” stated Amy Gallant Sullivan, executive director of TFOS, in a news release. The TFOS Lifestyle Workshop report involved 158 ocular surface experts from 38 countries and took nearly 3 years to complete. According to David A. Sullivan, PhD, founder of TFOS, the Workshop report was committed to an evidence-based approach and achieved a consensus concerning lifestyle choices and ocular surface disease.

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My Two Cents

As a dry eye nerd, I can’t wait to read this report! Whenever TFOS releases any new reports, I consider it mandatory reading material. It is often filled to the brim with fresh clinical pearls that I can use to help my patients with ocular surface disease live a more comfortable life. Be on the lookout for this one!

OUTSIDE THE LANE

A New Theory on the Evolution of Human Eyesight

A new hypothesis about the evolution of human eyesight has been proposed in a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

New research suggests that some components of vertebrate vision may not have been created and shaped by standard evolution as we’ve often thought but were rather “stolen” from entirely different living organisms.

According to molecular biologist Matt Daugherty, “At least one innovation that led to the current structure of vertebrate eyes did not occur from stepwise ‘tinkering’ with genes that exist in other animals but came from the introduction of novel DNA from bacteria by horizontal gene transfer.” This type of transfer is when genetic material moves between different types of organisms, such as gene-swapping viruses or thieving bacteria. The researchers believe that early retinoids suddenly arose in vertebrate eyes more than 500 million years ago and were thieved from a bacterial gene. (Read more here.)

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My Two Cents

Although I’m not an evolutionary biologist, if this hypothesis is true, it would go against what I assume is the common hypothesis regarding the evolution of the human eye. Something that most eye doctors would undoubtedly be interested in “keeping an eye on.”

CAN YOU RELATE

This past weekend, my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and their child visited us for my son’s 5th birthday. As is the case whenever family or friends come to visit, the Davidson household was bustling with activity in a rushed sort of spring cleaning to prepare for our guests.

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It got me thinking: Do I ever get this same urge when it comes to my practice? Is there ever a visitor or an event that motivates me to ensure that my clinic is refreshed and looking its absolute best? Sure, we should all strive for our practices to look this way every day; however, that’s often impossible with tasks missed and skipped throughout the year. My challenge to you is to host an event or invite someone to your clinic who you would want to impress, whether that’s a family member, friend, local politician, etc. Motivate yourself to give your practice the annual “spring cleaning” it could undoubtedly use!