eyesmart.com.au

The Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, and Brien Holden Vision Institute recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will encourage future cooperation in clinical and fundamental research into refractive error, particularly in the Asian context, including through the establishment of the Australia China Centre for Optometry Research and Development.

Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center (ZOC) is the major provider of advanced eye care in China, integrating teaching, eye research and blindness prevention activities. The Centre provide services to nearly half a million outpatients and completes 30 000 surgeries every year.

The collaboration has led to a major development in the treatment of myopia (short sightedness or difficulty focusing on distant objects). The new treatment is award-winning spectacle and contact lens designs that promise to help reduce the growing burden of myopia, especially in young children with a history of parental myopia.