SECO 2023: Hot news or not news?

Chris Wroten, OD, shares highlights from discussion titled, "Hot news or not news?" which he presented during the 2023 SECO meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

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

Wroten:

My name is Chris Wroten and I'm a doctor optometry in Southeast Louisiana who's lecturing here at SECO.

So I've got a an interesting course that was kind of designed and developed in conjunction with Paul Ajamian and here at SECO called, "Hot news or not news." And it's a topic that I really enjoy looking at new technologies, new pharmaceuticals that are in the pipeline or have just come out, new diagnostic technologies that are being developed. Some really exciting and cutting edge things that perhaps in the next decade may be game changers for optometry.

Format of the course is we'll go over some of those things and then our audience will get to participate and give us a thumbs up, "Yes, I think this is hot news," or, "No, this doesn't really excite me or motivate me for the future of optometry." But I think there's really some exciting things. And there's just a mass of developments that are out there and coming that really could impact the quality of care we can offer to our patients and really impact their quality of life.

In the "Hot news or not news" session, I certainly hope that our colleagues and our attendees will walk out of that with a better grasp of what's on the horizon. And like any healthcare profession, we face our challenges these days. But if we look at the opportunities that are out there, [I] think the opportunities far outweigh the challenges. And yes, things may look a little different in 10 or 20 years as far as how we provide care and the things we can bring to our patients in our offices and on a daily basis.

I think that the future is extremely bright for optometry and I hope that everyone will walk out with an understanding of whatever specialty or specialty areas that they practice in, that there really are some amazing things that are being developed. And if we can stay abreast of those then we can position ourselves to take advantage of those as a profession