Co-founders of the new Auckland Myopia Clinic: Dr Vivienne Zhang, Charisse Kuo and Gina Partridge

Located in the heart of Auckland’s CBD, optometrist trio Dr Vivienne Zhang, Charisse Kuo and Gina Partridge have opened New Zealand’s first clinic specialising in myopia management: the Auckland Myopia Clinic.

The new practice is located on the former premises of Matthews Eyecare Victoria Street (previously Victoria Street Optometrists). The area’s patient demographic has shifted in recent years from middle-aged professionals to children who developed myopia and progressed during the Covid-19 lockdowns, said Partridge. “We saw more and more children with myopia onset from a young age; many who were progressing rapidly, often without adequate intervention or wearing regular, single-vision glasses. We wanted to offer these children the best possible care to manage their myopia, using a full range of evidence-based treatments and technologies to look after them.”

The clinic has patients from as far away as China, Partridge said, with parents flying their children to New Zealand every six months for reviews. “That shows the dedication of some of our patients’ parents to do their very best for their kids.”

The team is also proud to be the fastest growing MiSight prescriber, not only in New Zealand but in all of Australasia, she said. “Considering the size of Auckland compared to Australian cities, we believe it’s an incredible achievement and a testament to our passion for fitting young children with contact lenses, giving them an excellent myopia control treatment while enhancing their lives for school, sports and play.”

The clinic is also one of the first practices in the country to prescribe the new Acuvue Abiliti lenses with Ringboost technology, said Partridge. “We have already fitted 25 young children with these new lenses, gaining valuable experience with the treatment and learning how best to optimise it for our patients.” Touching on red-light therapy for myopia management, Partridge said it’s an emerging treatment with promising results in research. “We are watching this area with interest; once there are more long-term data on the safety profile of the treatment, we will consider introducing it to our patients.”