November 22, 1997 For Immediate Release Andover Communications, Inc. Steve Clark 201-947-4133

For Information Contact Jon Torrey 503-636-3707

Innovative Eye Tester Equips Physicians to Attack Top Healthcare Problem in Office

(Portland, OREGON) As personal computer usage grows, computer related eyestrain is approaching epidemic proportions among computer users. In 1991, a Harris poll cited that computer related eyestrain was the number one office related health complaint in the United States. A study the same year, by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), indicated that of the 66 million people who work at computers for more than three hours a day, 88%—nearly 60 million—suffer from symptoms of eyestrain.

Until now there has been no "cure" for victims of computer eyestrain, because most optometrists, ophthalmologists and opticians have assumed that reading a computer screen was identical to reading the printed page. So instead, computer users relied mostly on prescriptions that were the result of tests based on reading the printed word, or on "folk remedies" (adjusting ambient light levels, moving the monitor farther away, and so on), in their attempt to relieve the uncomfortable symptoms of eyestrain.

Now, an innovative vision tester made by PRIO Corporation is available for widespread use. This tester now offers casualties of computer eyestrain a practical solution—an examination that simulates the unique effects of the computer screen on the user's eyes. The premise of the PRIO® VDT Vision Tester is that viewing a computer screen is not the same as viewing the printed word. The difference in the prescriptions this tester generates, and the results reported by patients, bear this out.

Why Computers Cause Eyestrain
Unlike printed characters which exhibit even density and sharp edges, the computer screen's image is made up of dots of light (pixels) that are bright at the center and grow dimmer at their edges. Because of this, computer users' eyes don't receive the sharp-edged visual information they need to focus accurately. So most computer users' eyes focu is behind the computer screen, which makes computer users readjust their eyes constantly in an attempt to bring their focus back up to the plane of the screen. The eye muscles' constant efforts to re-focus causes the problems symptomatic of eyestrain, including headaches, burning or tired eyes, blurred vision, loss of focus, double vision, and neck and shoulder pain.

How a PRIO Prescription Eliminates Eyestrain
With a PRIO tester, an examining doctor generates a specialized eyewear prescription, which allows the computer user's eyes to focus naturally on the computer screen rather than behind it. This type of specialized prescription cannot be generated using the doctor's "typical" printed black-on-white vision targets. (In technical terms, a PRIO tester generates a prescription for glasses that corrects for the VDT-induced "lag of accommodation"—the distance between the computer screen and the eyes' natural resting point behind the screen.) By simulating a computer screen, the PRIO tester helps the examining physician develop a specialized prescription that's uniquely suited to relieving computer eyestrain. "The increased comfort resulting from the PRIO specialized prescription can actually be demonstrated during the examination itself," said PRIO's vice president of marketing, Jon Torrey.

Computer Users Prefer PRIO Prescriptions
Three years of clinical testing, a rapidly growing number of vision tester sales, placement of PRIO testers in optometric teaching universities, as well as a number of independent studies, all support this claim. One recent study found that casualties of computer eyestrain prefer wearing PRIO-generated prescriptive lenses by a factor of five to one. And thousands of patients are finding relief from computer eyestrain. "I've worked with computers for over 15 years, and eyestrain has been a constant reminder of the long hours in front of a VDT. My PRIO glasses have finally given me freedom from the frequent headaches I used to go home with at night," said Mark Adams, a software services manager.

Eyecare physicians also speak highly of their patients' results when using the new PRIO vision tester. "Because the PRIO test simulates the patient's own workstation, it lets the patient return, visually, to the state he or she is actually in at work. That's why the prescriptions are so effective; it's as if we're examining patients right at their computers while they're working. PRIO prescriptions relieve all the symptoms of computer eyestrain. Over nearly three years and hundreds of computer prescriptions, we haven't had a single unhappy patient," said Harvey Schneider, O.D.

A Growing Network of Local Doctors Offer Computer Prescriptions
Across the U.S., PRIO already has twenty-one wholesale optical laboratories supplying a network of nearly 800 optometrists, ophthalmologists and opticians from coast to coast. Working with the doctors within their regions, each PRIO-approved lab places PRIO vision testers in eyecare physicians' offices in exchange for a portion of their lens grinding business.

Having the PRIO VDT vision tester in their offices puts optometrists, ophthalmologists, and opticians on the cutting edge of eyecare technology. The clinically validated, FDA-released, PRIO vision tester exactly simulates the visual characteristics of a computer screen—which are substantially different from the black-ink-on-white-paper used for most eye tests—so the examining doctor can generate a prescription specifically designed to help cure computer eyestrain.

For More Information
Available since October, 1992, the PRIO computer vision tester gives doctors an effective, proven way to address this common complaint. The PRIO computer vision tester is a patented, FDA market-approved Class 1 Medical Device. It is stocked and available through the twenty-one optical laboratories in the PRIO network of authorized distributors. Located in Beaverton, Or., PRIO was founded in 1986.

PRIO® is a registered trademark of PRIO Corporation.

Notes To Editors:
1) For photography regarding PRIO, its products, personnel or home page, contact Steve Clark, Andover Communications, at 201-947-4133.

For more information on PRIO Corporation and the PRIO Provider Network of eye doctors, call or visit the company's website at www.prio.com.

PRIO® is a registered trademark of PRIO Corporation.