Essilor China, Syncreto Vision (BaoDao Optical), and Airdoc Launch 'Baby EYE Care Program' to Combat Childhood Myopia

SHANGHAI, April 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 16, 2019, Essilor China, together with Star Vision (Baodao Optical) and Airdoc, a leading artificial intelligence enterprise in the medical field, held a joint press conference to officially announce the launch of the "Baby EYE Care Plan." Essilor China introduced "Hong Baobei," a myopia management product validated by the expert panel of the "White Paper on Myopia Management," and combined it with Star Vision's "360-Degree Myopia Prevention and Control Solution" to help more families manage myopia scientifically.

Urgent Action Needed for Vision Problems: Scientific Guidance from the Myopia White Paper

China’s myopia prevalence has ranked first globally for many years, with an increasing number of adolescents and even children wearing glasses. The current situation in myopia prevention and control is severe, having drawn significant attention from the national government. On August 30, 2018, the Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission, the General Administration of Sport of China, the Ministry of Finance, and other departments jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents. The goal is to achieve, by 2023, an annual reduction of more than 0.5 percentage points in the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents nationwide compared to the 2018 baseline, and an annual reduction of more than 1 percentage point in provinces with high myopia prevalence.

Myopia management has been elevated to a national policy priority. Since November 8, 2018, Essilor has collaborated extensively with numerous experts in the optometry and ophthalmology industries, repeatedly refining and polishing the content to ensure the finalization of the White Paper on Myopia Management. The white paper was officially released on March 21, 2019, at the 19th Congress of Ophthalmology and the 19th Congress of Optometry (collectively referred to as COOC 2019). Developed within the fundamental framework of the Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents, the white paper provides feasible, credible, and accessible myopia management guidelines tailored for eye care professionals and myopic patients. It comprises five sections: standard definitions of myopia management, establishment of refractive records, myopia screening and prevention in children and adolescents, correction of non-progressive myopia, and correction of progressive myopia. During the conference, Essilor also announced its continued collaboration with experts to conduct in-depth research on the White Paper on Myopia Management. A retail version of the white paper will be launched, aligned with store workflows and communication scripts, to serve as an operational guide for retail outlets. This initiative aims to provide strong support for implementation at the retail level, thereby delivering more scientific myopia management education and visual health solutions to Chinese consumers.。

A Triple Alliance for the Well-being of Adolescents

A parallel forum was held during the joint press conference, where leaders from Essilor, Star Vision, and Airdoc jointly elaborated on the significance of this collaborative project. The Baby EYE Care initiative aims to provide Chinese adolescents with more scientific myopia management solutions.

As a practitioner in the optometry industry, Mr. Lin Guoliang, President of Essilor China's Lens Division, believes that“The lack of standardized processes and the diverse array of service models have failed to effectively correct and enhance consumers’ awareness of eye health during service delivery and communication, posing a significant challenge to the current optometry and ophthalmic industry. Consumers’ primary pain point lies in the absence of a professional, authoritative, and unified platform for popularizing eye care knowledge and providing consultations when they seek to learn more about optometry and general eye health. Essilor is committed to promoting the release of the “White Paper on Myopia Management” with the aim of standardizing educational content and services across the industry. Leveraging the scientific endorsement of this White Paper, the tripartite collaboration among Essilor, Xingchuang Group, and Airdoc will better assist more Chinese families in selecting scientifically sound, reliable, and effective myopia management solutions tailored to their specific needs for adolescents.

Wang Zhimin, Chairman of Starry Vision Group, emphasized three times during the conference that "myopia is irreversible," and further highlighted the need for continuity in the three steps of myopia prevention and control: prevention, examination, and management. Currently, measures for myopia prevention and control across various sectors of society are fragmented and disconnected, which hinders the effectiveness of myopia management. This is why Starry Vision has proposed the "360-Degree Myopia Prevention and Control" solution. Under this framework, Starry integrates comprehensive services including professional screening, AI-based prediction, AI-driven behavioral intervention, corrective solutions with professional products, electronic health record management, and regular follow-up examinations, aiming to provide sustainable monitoring and intervention to control the progression of myopia in children. Leveraging its offline network of 1,200 digital stores and 1,500 professional optometrists, Starry Vision effectively integrates these three steps to implement the 360-degree myopia prevention and control strategy. The Baby EYE Care Plan represents the concrete implementation of this approach. In this initiative, Starry Vision offers adolescent visual dynamics assessments that screen for refractive errors and comprehensive visual functions, along with multiple follow-up visits and personalized electronic eye health records. The program also incorporates Essilor’s Red Baby products and Airdoc’s AI-based myopia prediction technology.

Airdoc founder Zhang Dalei pointed out: "In the face of children and adolescentsYearAddressing myopia requires a thorough understanding of its progression in children and adolescents to implement targeted prevention and control measures. Airdoc’s myopia prediction product, leveraging over one million longitudinal optometry records from hospitals, can assess the risk of developing myopia in children and adolescents aged 3–18 years. For those already diagnosed with myopia, it predicts the trajectory of myopia progression, providing risk alerts to parents and schools to heighten awareness and prioritize myopia prevention. Furthermore, this algorithm offers a scientific basis for myopia prevention and control strategies.

Ms. Chen Luyi, Chief Commercial Officer of Essilor China, stated that, in light of individual differences in adolescent myopia, Essilor advocates for an eye health management model starting with screening, which is well-suited for myopia management in adolescents. This approach helps to more clearly assess children’s visual status and ocular development, enabling tailored recommendations based on each child’s specific condition. Multiple Essilor products for adolescent myopia management have been evaluated and certified as effective by the expert panel of the “White Paper on Myopia Management.” Meanwhile, Lian Jie, Chief Professional Officer of Star Vision Group, proposed five specific recommendations for myopia prevention and control, beginning with strengthening public education and science popularization.；The Best Physicians Treat Disease Before It Arises: Conduct More Myopia Screenings for Children；If myopia has already developed, personalized solutions should be adopted based on the different causes.；Regular follow-up examinations are recommended, with screening once every quarter.，Establish Visual Health Records.

Baby EYE Care Plan will first launch the “Recruitment of 300 Experience Officers” campaign in May, providing a comprehensive 360-degree myopia prevention and control service package free of charge to 300 children. This initiative will be carried out in six cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Dongguan. Meanwhile, the plan aims to offer affordable myopia management solutions to more families across China in the future.

Under the “Baby EYE Care Plan,” three industry-leading enterprises—Essilor, Star Vision, and Airdoc—have clearly defined roles, leveraging their respective strengths in scenarios, AI technology, and professional products to provide scientifically sound and practical myopia management solutions for the public. This robust tripartite collaboration, aligned with national policies, aims to bring a brighter future to the vast number of adolescents in China.