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PCON Editorial Board members to speak at Academy 2012
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Primary Care Optometry News will sponsor three 2-hour continuing education courses during Academy 2012 Phoenix, the American Academy of Optometry’s annual meeting, featuring four members of the PCON Editorial Board.
PCON Editorial Board member Paul M. Karpecki, OD, FAAO, and David I. Geffen, OD, will host a fast-paced look at new and future technologies that cover diagnostic testing, therapeutics, drug delivery systems and procedures in “New technology rapid-fire session.”
They will discuss technologies ranging from stem cell treatments to polymer IOLs, diagnostic equipment and state-of-the-art spectacle lenses, Karpecki and Geffen told PCON.
“It is estimated that more than 60% of patients research ocular conditions on the Internet and may uncover some of these new or future technologies,” they said. “This course will allow you to answer any questions obtained from that patient’s Internet research and, thus, maintain your role as their primary eye care provider.”
Editorial Board member Jerome Sherman, OD, FAAO, in his course, “Exploring the globe with technologies that image a mile wide and a mile deep,” will discuss cutting-edge technologies that can be used to diagnose peripheral retinal abnormalities, deep retinal lesions and anterior segment anomalies.
The autofluorescence function of the Optos Daytona “picks up abnormalities we completely miss with other technologies,” Sherman told PCON. “It’s good for inherited disorders such as sickle cell disease and Coats’ disease. This is going to become increasingly important because there’s treatment out there for some of these disorders.”
The Annidas RHA system performs multispectral imaging, where 10 images are taken, each using a different color LED, Sherman said.
“Each LED penetrates to a different level, and the images often look different, so some lesions or abnormalities will show up at one wavelength, but not another,” he said. “It’s proving to be very useful for detecting various pathologies. It’s much better at the retinal pigment epithelium and everything under it.”
Ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) systems image the entire front of the eye, “but they go all the way across – about 180 degrees” Sherman said. “We get images that no one has ever seen; we can see if anything such as a melanoma is growing behind the iris.”
Editorial Board members Ron Melton, OD, FAAO, and Randall Thomas, OD, MPH, FAAO, will address advances in therapeutic options for acute and chronic ocular diseases in their course, “Current trends in medical management.”
Besivance (besifloxacin 0.6%, Bausch + Lomb) is a novel chloro-fluoroquinolone that is not used systemically, thereby making it “resistance-proof,” the doctors say. It is approved for treating bacterial conjunctivitis and recently received four additional labeling indications covering infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aerococcus viridans, Moraxella catarrhalis and Staphylococcus warneri.
Melton and Thomas will also discuss a new test for measuring inflammation of the ocular surface, InflammaDry by RPS. They say it may predict the patient’s response to cyclosporine, doxycycline and steroids.
For more information on these courses or to register, go to www.PCONmeetings.com/AAO.