COPE-Approved Course Provides Insights on How to Best Treat Patients with
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
SAN RAMON, CALIF., January 11, 2022—As part of its ongoing partnership with the Special Olympics Lions Clubs International Foundation Opening Eyes® program, CooperVision is helping to facilitate a new continuing education series for eye care professionals (ECPs). The coursework explores ocular and general health concerns for people with IDD to enhance quality of and access to care.
The seven-course series aims to shine a light on the disparity experienced by those with IDD and educate ECPs so they can better meet the unique needs of this group. The next CE webinar—Refractive Error & Strabismus & Ambylopia, Oh My! Management Tips for those with IDD—will take place on Tuesday, January 18th, at 9 p.m. EST. It will be presented by Katie Connolly, OD, FAAO, Associate Clinical Professor and Chief of Pediatric and Binocular Vision Services at the Indiana University School of Optometry. To register for this continuing education course, please visit https://bit.ly/OpeningEyesJan18.
“By increasing knowledge of the health and clinical considerations for the IDD community, while also providing practical training opportunities for eye care professionals and optometry students, we can and will change lives,” said Dr. Karen Walsh of CooperVision’s Global Professional Affairs team. “CooperVision is dedicated to helping people see better each day—exactly what we’re trying to accomplish through this partnership with Special Olympics.”
The first two courses, Shedding a Light on Eye Care and Health Disparities for Those with IDD and Common Visual Impairments in Those with IDD—as well as all future courses in the series— are on-demand in the Special Olympics Learning Portal. Each course provides one hour of COPE continuing education credits.
In April 2021, CooperVision—in partnership with Optometry Giving Sight and Special Olympics—committed $300,000 through 2023 to support the Special Olympics Lions Clubs International Foundation Opening Eyes® program. The joint initiative provides Special Olympics athletes with increased access to eye health screenings, prescription eyewear and sports goggles.
# # #
About CooperVision
CooperVision, a division of CooperCompanies (NYSE:COO), is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of contact lenses. The company produces a full array of daily disposable, two-week and monthly soft contact lenses that feature advanced materials and optics, and premium rigid gas permeable lenses for orthokeratology and scleral designs. CooperVision has a strong heritage of addressing the toughest vision challenges such as astigmatism, presbyopia, childhood myopia, and highly irregular corneas; and offers the most complete portfolio of spherical, toric and multifocal products available. Through a combination of innovative products and focused practitioner support, the company brings a refreshing perspective to the marketplace, creating real advantages for customers and wearers. For more information, visit www.coopervision.com.
About CooperCompanies
CooperCompanies ("Cooper") is a global medical device company publicly traded on the NYSE (NYSE:COO). Cooper operates through two business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision brings a refreshing perspective on vision care with a commitment to developing a wide range of high-quality products for contact lens wearers and providing focused practitioner support. CooperSurgical is committed to advancing the health of women, babies and families with its diversified portfolio of products and services focusing on medical devices and fertility & genomics. Headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., Cooper has a workforce of more than 12,000 with products sold in over 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.coopercos.com.
About Special Olympics
Founded in 1968, Special Olympics is a global movement to end discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities. We foster acceptance of all people through the power of sport and programming in education, health and leadership. With more than six million athletes and Special Olympics Unified Sports® partners in over 190 countries and territories and more than one million coaches and volunteers, Special Olympics delivers more than 30 Olympic-type sports and over 100,000 Games and competitions every year. Engage with us on: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn and our blog on Medium. Learn more at www.SpecialOlympics.org.
Media Contact
Maggie Munley, Counselor, McDougall Communications
maggie@mcdougallpr.com or +1-585-434-2149