Dec. 3, 2020 — Popular Science magazine has recognized CooperVision’s MiSight 1 day contact lens with its 2020 “Best of What’s New Award” in the health category.

The Popular Science ”Best of What’s New Awards” recognize up to 100 of the most innovative technologies from the past year across 10 categories. Past award winners have included the first portable defibrillator (1997), NASA’s New Horizons Voyage to Pluto (2015), the first FDA-approved gene therapy (2017), and 5G cellular (2019).

"The Best of What's New Awards showcase the year’s greatest feats of human ingenuity," says Corinne Iozzio, Popular Science editor-in-chief. "Even in a year like 2020, innovation has helped us glimpse a future that’s safer, smarter, and more enjoyable than we might have thought possible.”

MiSight 1 day daily, single-use contact lens is the cornerstone of CooperVision’s Brilliant Futures Myopia Management program, and is the first and only FDA-approved product to slow the progression of myopia when initially prescribed for children 8-12 years old. 

”Two out of every 5 Americans have myopia, disease that both impairs distance vision and increases the risk of sight-threatening conditions later in life,” says Jerry Warner, executive VP, Americas and global commercial functions for CooperVision. ”The introduction of MiSight 1 day contact lenses in the U.S. has meant that age-appropriate children, for the first time, have access to an approved solution that can help them reduce the severity of myopia progression and enjoy brilliant futures. We are honored that Popular Science has recognized the impact of this technology.”

The award follows new data from a clinical study conducted by CooperVision revealing that nearly 1 in 4 children’s eyes originally fit with MiSight 1 day remain stable in their myopia level after six years. The study previously established the lens to be effective in slowing myopia progression in age-appropriate children by an average of 59% over a three-year period, as measured by spherical refraction.

More than 2,000 U.S. eyecare professionals are currently certified and able to prescribe CooperVision’s Brilliant Futures Myopia Management Program. For more information on certification: coopervision.com/practitioner/myopia-management.