UC San Diego

OBJECTIVE: To assess the educational impact of a worldwide webinar approach to myopia progression management in children <8 years and 8-12 years old. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: A self-administered survey was conducted for attendees of a 3 h worldwide webinar held in two parts on consecutive days on the management of myopia progression in children. The survey was administered before, immediately after completion of the webinar, and 8 weeks later; responses were recorded on a Likert scale. Questions were posed to assess (a) the confidence of attendees in managing myopia in children <12 years old, (b) attendees understanding of latest treatment options, (c) any improvement in attendees knowledge after the webinar, and (d) any changes made to practice 8 weeks after the webinar. Pre- and post-responses were analyzed using an unpaired two-tailed t-test. RESULTS: The webinar had 701 and 606 global attendees on the first and second days, respectively. Based on a comparison of contact information, 372 attendees participated on days 1 and 2, meaning 288 and 233 participants attended only day 1 and day 2, respectively. There was a significant increase in the percentage of attendees who were very confident in managing myopia after the webinar (p < 0.05). Ninety-nine attendees completed the survey at 8 weeks. Of these, 76% believed that the webinar had very significantly or significantly improved their ability to manage pediatric myopia and 91% had implemented or intended to implement a change in their practice. The respondents who did not implement a change identified cost and patient compliance as the common barriers. CONCLUSION: There is a tsunami of research and management options in the field of myopia management at present. We demonstrate that an effective way of disseminating information and education about myopia management is a pre-designed comprehensive webinar held over two consecutive days. There is evidence that such a webinar may also influence a change in clinical practice.