LAUSR

Dermatologists, similar to everyone else, are subject to the inevitable: aging. More than 80% of the US population develops presbyopia, an age-related reduction in visual acuity, in their lifetime. The most common cause of refractive error in adults, presbyopia can contribute to reduced professional productivity, and individuals with uncorrected presbyopia face an estimated 8-fold increase in difficulty performing demanding nearvision tasks.1 As specialists who rely heavily on visual assessment, dermatologists likely are aware of presbyopia, seeking care as appropriate; however, visual correction is not one size fits all, and identifying effective job-specific adjustments may require considerable trial and error. To this end, if visual correction may be needed by a large majority of dermatologists at some point, why do we not have specialized recommendations to guide the corrective process according to the individual’s defect and type of practice within the specialty? Do we need resources for dermatologists concerning ophthalmologic wellness and key warning signs of visual acuity deficits and other ocular complications? These matters are difficult to address, made more so by the lack of data examining correctable visual impairment (CVI) in dermatology. The basis for discussion is clear; however, visual skills are highly relevant to the practice of dermatology, and age-related visual changes often are inevitable. This article will provide an overview of CVI in related disciplines and the importance of understanding CVI and corrective options in dermatology.