Vision show offers full slate of education, insight

Atlanta-The SECO International conference will once again live up to its mission of being a leading source of continuing education for optometrists and allied professionals, offering nearly 350 hours of accredited programs. The annual meeting, slated for Feb. 10 to 14 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, will follow the theme "embracing the generations." Educational sessions will address the challenge of providing care to patients ranging from infants to seniors, and are aimed at practitioners new to their field as well as those with years of experience.

Opening session and the weekend

Highlights on Friday will include a lecture on a topic of interest to clinicians who provide care to an aging population: evidence of an association between the eye and Alzheimer's disease. Clement Trempe, MD, a retina expert at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, will explain how the crystalline lens can give clues to the onset of Alzheimer's.

Featured courses over the weekend will look at advances in refractive surgery and the management of ocular therapy. On Saturday, Roy Rubinfeld, MD, and J. James Thimons, OD, FAAO, will discuss emerging technologies in cataract and refractive surgery and the diagnosis and care of patients.

A SECO 2010 special session on Sunday morning will examine the efforts of optometrists to diagnose and manage disease while maintaining therapeutic privileges. The speakers will be Michael Bacigalupi, OD, FAAO, Alan Kabat, OD, FAAO, and Joseph Sowka, OD, FAAO.

Breakfast, lunch symposia

For meeting attendees who like to multitask, SECO 2010 offers a series of breakfast and lunch symposia. The Thursday morning symposium is an opportunity to brush up on the management of clinical partnerships. Paul Karpecki, OD, FAAO, and William Trattler, MD, will share pearls on testing, treatment, and practice management in professional relationships between optometrists and ophthalmologists.

The two-part Thursday lunch program will include an overview of products and services that can help with practice building as well as a session on effective patient communication and lens fitting. Marc Bloomenstein, OD, FAAO, will present the first talk, while the trio of Mike Rothschild, OD, Amir Khoshnevis, OD, and Dwight Akerman, OD, will address providing value for patients and profit for your practice.

The Friday breakfast session will begin with a program featuring a new resource to help optometrists better understand their patients, the industry, and the information and opportunities available to them. Carla Mack, OD, will present this topic. She will be followed by Lyndon Jones, PhD, FAAO, who will discuss how a 1-day silicone hydrogel contact lens can improve and maintain ocular health.

On Saturday morning, two clinicians will share the latest research on best practices in prescribing vision correction, with emphasis on prescribing rather than simply recommending eye-care products. Speakers will be Dr. Karpecki and Christine Sindt, OD, FAAO.

Special sessions for allied ophthalmic professionals include the introduction of a public health program called InfantSEE, which is designed to help infants establish a lifetime of healthy vision. Lynn S. Hammonds, OD, and Diane Ladd will discuss techniques and procedures for examining the eyes of infants; the program will take place Friday morning. The free, interactive AOP general session on Friday afternoon will include a panel discussion on cross-training issues.

Optometry students also have a set of programs specifically tailored for their needs. The day of free educational courses begins on Saturday at 9:15 a.m. with a discussion of masquerade syndromes intended to help emerging optometrists distinguish between binocular vision problems and ocular disease issues. Leonard Press, OD, FCOVD, FAAO, and Dr. Thimons will lead the program.

Following a free lunch included in the student program, Dr. Press will take the podium once more to address the continuum of patient care in the life of a practice.