SINGAPORE and NEW YORK—Review of Myopia Management (RMM) has announced a new partnership with the Singapore-based health tech company, Plano Pte Ltd. Under their new agreement, RMM and Plano will produce new educational content designed specifically for eyecare professionals worldwide. By joining forces, the companies hope to expand their current platforms and engage with the growing international myopia management community. Jobson Optical Group launched RMM in March 2019 to create and share the most up-to-date information and educational tools for eyecare providers (ECPs). Over the last two years, RMM has established itself as the first multi-platform digital asset dedicated entirely to myopia management.

Plano entered the eyecare field in late 2017 with the primary goal of protecting consumers' eyes in the face of a growing digital landscape. The company recognized the ever-increasing number of myopia cases worldwide and the projections that those figures are expected to surge in the coming years. With the help of the Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore National Eye Centre, National Health Innovation Centre, and Enterprise Singapore, they worked to create an ecosystem that consists of:

1. Educational content and community engagement to raise awareness on eye health and myopia in parents and children.
2. A science-based and innovative app, the planoApp, that empowers children to safely use digital smart devices while reducing their exposure to the risk factors for myopia, such as excessive digital screen time, lack of outdoor activity, and unsafe face-to-screen distance.
3. planoEyeheck, a smart online web platform to allow for efficient, convenient, cost-effective and targeted optometry bookings.
4. Predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to identify high-risk children in need of early intervention to reduce the progression of their myopia.

The Plano ecosystem is now trusted by almost 500,000 parents from 10 different countries, including the U.S. and Australia.

“Review of Myopia Management and Plano are world leaders in addressing the global myopia crisis. This new content partnership will enhance our mission to educate and motivate ECPs to become proactive in aggressively managing childhood myopia,” said Dwight Akerman, OD, MBA, chief medical editor of Review of Myopia Management.

The founding managing director of Plano, associate professor Mo Dirani, added, “To solve the global issue of myopia, a coordinated and comprehensive approach is needed, where specifically tailored education and awareness models play a central role. For this reason, partnering with the team at Review of Myopia Management made complete sense.”

Because of RMM and Plano's similar goals in spreading awareness of myopia and educating ECPs about the benefits of myopia management treatments, this partnership will produce even more resources that can be used in myopia management by eyecare professionals worldwide, the announcement said.

Plano was developed to save sight and empower lives. With a culture of disruptive thinking grounded in real scientific research, Plano promotes the use of innovative technology to provide a solution to help mitigate the public health, societal and economic issues posed by excessive device usage.

Dirani has dedicated his life to the study and research of myopia and is an adjunct associate professor at Duke-NUS Medical School and an honorary principal investigator at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA). In July 2020, Plano announced its strategic alliance  with global ophthalmic leader, Santen Pharmaceutical. In November 2020, Plano emerged as the winner of Galen Growth’s World's Most Innnovative HealthTech Startup 2020 Award from a field of 64 global health tech startups.