VEW 2024: Bringing the excitement of Vegas to eye care

The excitement of Las Vegas, Nevada is alive and well at Vision Expo West 2024. Marc Bloomenstein, OD, FAAO, education chairman for Vision Expo, said that that excitement is evident in the plethora of education opportunities, including "Ask the Experts" and "Case Files" series.

Video Transcript:

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

Marc Bloomenstein, OD, FAAO:

Dr. Marc Bloomenstein, Scottsdale, Arizona. I am the education chairman for Vision Expo. So one of the things that I think we realize as education evolves, much like the profession of optometry, and we have to try to be innovative, and we try to also have to be more practical. One of our goals as part of the committee was to make courses that [doctors] could take straight from the podium, straight into the lane. We wanted to try to educate about using new technologies, new opportunities, but put it in a very practical way, so that doctors felt that they were gaining something by being here. So you'll see courses like "Ask the Experts," where we try to engage with the audience, where they have specific questions related to cases they may be seeing, or "Case Files, where a lot of the lectures are based on real cases, things that are just real life, not just kind of hypothetical or things that are maybe even just less common.

For me, what I like to do is, I like to engage in most of the attendees here. And so being on the podium, for me is kind of a way of just having that interaction. The courses that I love doing [are] being on panels. You know, one of those in particular is working with Dr Laura Periman. Laura is an MD, and to have her here, educating ODs, and ODs basically educating her, it's a win, win situation. Moreover, doing case files where we did a case challenge. We did a west coast case challenge on the first day where we pitted 7 doctors brought in specific cases based on technology, how they used that technology in the practice, and we did a ranked choice decision as to who was our number one. And Jessica Steen actually won. It was really exciting, exciting for her that she won, but not so exciting for the fact that the case she presented was herself so it was a mixed bag, but those are the types of courses you get to see here at Expo.

One of the things that's probably the most unique to this meeting is that it's in Vegas. So Vision Expo West is as exciting inside as it is outside. Moreover, because Vegas just never stops. There's always something going on at Expo, and especially if you walk through the exhibit hall or go into the education, or even just right now, I don't know if you can hear the thumping going on right outside the exhibit hall. There's a DJ. So the excitement of Vegas is actually just as well, the excitement here at the meeting. Coming to a meeting, coming to a conference like Expo, it's not just the education. You learn just as much from your colleagues being with your colleagues, but it's the camaraderie that you don't get by doing virtual. So if you haven't been to Expo, we'll see you at Expo East, or maybe we'll see you next year at Expo West.