EyeCon 2023: Key takeaways from the optometry co-chairs Dr. Kelly Nichols and Dr. Paul Chous

Kelly K. Nichols, OD, MPH, PhD, FAAO, and A. Paul Chous, OD, FAAO, recap the diverse topics at EyeCon 2023, emphasizing the collaborative spirit between optometrists and ophthalmologists in addressing issues such as myopia management, diabetic eye conditions, cataract surgery, and patient referrals.

Video Transcript

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

Kelly K. Nichols, OD, MPH, PhD, FAAO: Hi, everyone! Welcome to EyeCon 2023, coming to you from Sanibel, Florida. We are having a wonderful time at the conference so far and we love that you joined us. We're going to recap a little bit about what's been going on today and tomorrow.

I'm Kelly Nichols. I'm co-chair.

A. Paul Chous, OD, FAAO: I'm Paul Chous. I'm the other optometry co-chair with Dr. Nichols.

Nichols: And Paul, where are you from?

Chous: I'm in Tacoma, Washington. And my practice is all diabetes. Kelly's much more renowned than I am.

Nichols: I do mostly dry eye work, and I'm at University of Alabama at Birmingham in Birmingham, Alabama. Both of us are enjoying the warm Florida weather though. So it's definitely a treat to come down this time of year to Florida. Hope you'll join us or consider joining us next year if you want to come and be in person as opposed to virtual but we love our virtual attendees as well.

So, so far today, what do you think?

Chous: I think it's been a great meeting. We've had some terrific talks. Started off with a talk on I'm thinking of myopia management...was actually the second talk with some renowned experts, Mark Bullimore and others. And we had an initial talk about diabetic macular edema and neovascular AMD.

Nichols: We've covered geographic atrophy [and] advances in cataract surgery. Right now we're hearing some glaucoma and tomorrow we have a full lineup.

This meeting is unique in that our first day today is a joint session between optometry and ophthalmology. So we think it's probably one of the only meetings that's like this in the country. It's been great because we've had a chance to hear a little bit about the referral patterns and what we'd each liked to be better at in the relationship. So how can we best take care of our patients and get them to the surgical referrals they need? How can they best refer them back to us. Don't you think that's been really great?

Chous: Yeah, it's stellar speakers but collegiality I think hallmarks this meeting. Optometrists and ophthalmologists talking about working together in ways that benefit our mutual patients.

Nichols: Yeah. So tomorrow we have an optometry and ophthalmology track and again, this is supported by Optometry Times and Ophthalmology Times. But I think if somebody wanted to go back and forth between they certainly could. We have a great lineup tomorrow of things like we're going to hear about dry eye, more retina...

Chous: Retina comanagement talk.

Nichols: And there's so much more. We're very excited to be here. And certainly if you want to join in virtually tomorrow you can...so even today. We'd love to have you.