Webinar Duration: 2 hours | CPD Points: 2
The corona virus has sent humanity indoors, the loss of human contact has been replaced by the electronic contact. The world is now connected through electronic devices. Media houses relying on various platforms to connect, people working from home, institutions of higher education preparing to take their programmes online. All this is reliant on electronic devices, which may have already been an emerging public health issue before COVID19, however its arrival has poured an accelerant on this and now the side effects of an exponential rise in screen time may lead to the world suffering from a silent epidemic of Digital Eye Syndrome (DES).
Is the eye-care fraternity prepared for this? Is it business as usual? Do we continue to prescribe the same way for all patient’s presenting with DES? If we stop using the devices, the world may just stop moving. The daily routine of screen time in our lives make it a necessary evil we have to accept.
The webinar will distinguish between external and internal DES. What symptoms to look for, including the use of questionnaires that will help identify it. Thereafter a discussion of the various aspects of vision to highlight the signs to recognize the condition including the role of digital blue light. It will then conclude by discussing the role the optometrist plays in connecting the dots to realise a holistic management strategy including our extended role of advising ergonomics for DES.
Dr Alvin Munsamy
Optometrists | Lecturer
Dr Munsamy is an Optometrist, a lecturer and a course co-ordinator for the undergraduates in the discipline of Optometry at the School of Health Sciences at UKZN. He teaches and supervises at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, he also serves as an external examiner for the University of Free State.
Dr Munsamy's Doctoral study is to investigate the impact of retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) and ganglion cell layer (GCC) thickness on visual function in visually asymptomatic immunocompetent people living with HIV infection with and without ART treatment at immunocompetence of greater than 500cell/mm3 CD4 counts.
