Dr. Bloomenstein discusses the greatest anterior segment course ever at Vision Expo West

Marc Bloomenstein, OD, FAAO, and Editorial Advisory Board member for Optometry Times® outlines what attendees can anticipate from the greatest anterior segment disease and medical management of contact lens complications course ever at Vision Expo West.

Transcript

Brooke Beery: Hi, I'm Brooke Beery with Optometry Times® and I am joined today by Dr. Marc Bloomenstein, Optometry Times editorial advisory board member in Scottsdale, Arizona. He is lecturing on anterior segment disease and medical management of contact lens complications at Vision Expo West (VEW). Dr. Bloomenstein, thank you so much for talking with me today.

Marc R. Bloomenstein, OD, FAAO: Thanks, Brooke. I am excited to be here, virtually at least.

Beery: So, what are some key points from your talk?

Dr. Bloomenstein: I have to admit that the title of the talk is the greatest anterior segment lecture ever. And I am one of 4 panelists, myself, Dr. Paul Karpecki, Dr. Jack L. Schaeffer and Dr. Laura Periman. And I think the key kind of takeaway that I would love for people who are coming, or if they haven't come, they are thinking about coming, to leave with is that we all kind of have differing opinions about how to resolve common problems that we as optometrists see. I think the common thread within this talk is really is looking at, you know, anterior segment challenges, whether it be with contacts, without contacts, and then getting differing opinions on what is—not necessarily the best course of action—but what might be a course of action that you might want to be able to take away from that.

The nice thing about it, too, is that everybody kind of plays off of each other and having Dr. Periman there, who is a brilliant, brilliant ophthalmologist, and she is also quite the singer.

Beery: Wow!

Dr. Bloomenstein: Yeah! She drops few little diddies here a there, a little raps.

Beery: That sounds like a really fun course! What would you say is your take home message for ODs of this course, you kind of touched on it.

Dr. Bloomenstein: Well, to be honest with you, Brooke, it is the greatest course. Okay.

Beery: (laughs) Of course.

Dr. Bloomenstein: A take home message, honestly, would be the practicality of it. To me, our take home messages is that anterior segment is almost kind of like you know, breathing. Every single patient has it. We have to manage it so that our patients get best quality of vision, whether it be somebody who's a pediatrics, or whether it be somebody who is in their teens or there with contacts or pre or post-surgery. The bottom line is, is that there are a lot of different scenarios which could affect the quality of the vision and we have so many new opportunities to look at each patient and say, "What can I do to help this patient get the best quality of vision?" I think the real the biggest take home messages is try to get people excited about the fact that we have new diagnostics, we have new treatments, and it reallyallows us to be able to manage our patients in a much different way. It is really cool. And also, you know, it is the greatest course ever.

Beery: Well, nobody should miss the greatest course at VEW this year. Thank you so much for speaking with me today. Dr. Bloomenstein. It was a pleasure.

Dr. Bloomenstein: Thanks for having me.