SAN DIEGO—Predicting that the demand for vision services could flood the healthcare system by 2015 due to age related eye disease and diabetes, a group of optometrists recently formed the Optometric Nutrition Society, with the intent of making disease prevention--including lifestyle modification, attention to dietary intake and micronutrient supplementation—more of a focus of primary vision care.

According to its founders, the purpose of the new society is to promote excellence in the care of optometric patients through nutritional support of eye health and prevention and control of ocular and systemic disease; to sponsor professional symposia and a Web site, and generate materials to educate professionals regarding the role of nutrition in systemic and ocular health; to encourage health care professionals to exchange ideas on nutritional influences on vision; to provide a resource pool of studies supporting the role of nutritional support for management of ocular and systemic disease; to monitor and validate industry claims regarding nutritional supplements; and to encourage inclusion of nutrition education in optometry schools’ curricula.

The society’s founders say they will closely monitor peer-reviewed published science on nutritional influence on eye health, as well as safety and ethical issues regarding specific micronutrients included in supplements being marketed to vision patients. This information will be available to members through a quarterly newsletter and on the group’s Web site www.optometricnutritionsociety.org.

The non-profit society also plans an annual meeting, including COPE and Optometric Educational Institution approved continuing education with a nutrition focus.

The Optometric Nutrition Society’s officers are Jeffrey Anshel, OD, president; George Schmidt, OD, vice president; Ellen Troyer, secretary; and Richard Kattouf II, OD, treasurer.