AAOpt 2023: Dr Karen Carrasquillo gives highlights of the presentations she was part of during Academy

Karen G. Carrasquillo, OD, PhD, FAAO, FSLS, FBCLA, Senior Vice President of Clinical Professional Affairs at BostonSight, caught up with Optometry Times® during the 2023 American Academy of Optometry meeting in New Orleans. She shared brief overviews of her presentation, "Suction-busting scleral lenses: A guide to unsticking your lenses" and "Social determinants of health impacting the Latinx community."

Editor's note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Karen G. Carrasquillo, OD, PhD, FAAO, FSLS, FBCLA:

Hi everyone, this is Dr. Karen Carrasquillo, Senior Vice President of Clinical Professional Affairs at BostonSight to discuss some of the lectures that we've been involved with at the American Academy of Optometry.

One of the lectures we present it was on "Suction-busting scleral lenses: A guide to unsticking your lenses." And the purpose of that lecture was to educate the community at large on the importance and relevance of excessive suction and the impact that it can have on the ocular surface and physiological endpoints for our corneal disease patients, in particular fragile corneas, and ocular surface disease.

The other lecture that we were fortunate to be part of was addressing the health and cultural competence of the Latinx patients. Latinos are poised to become a minority by 2050 in the United States—and these days, there is significant and a growing number of Latino population. Educating the optometric community about cultural competence and ways that we can have a better impact with our Latino patients is very significant to drive better health outcomes and preventive care for the Latino community.

One particular initiative that I'm also involved with is with a nonprofit organization called Latinos en Optometry, and part of our mission is to raise awareness and mentor Latino optometrists and also increase the number of Latinos in the optometric field—in the industry—to provide better representation with the ultimate goal to provide and better serve our patients.