Co-chairs open with a focus on the future of optometry
Optometry Times EyeCon co-chairs Kelly K. Nichols, OD, MPH, PhD, FAAO and A. Paul Chous, MA, OD, FAAO, reflect on the 2023 EyeConversations keynote, which will feature new technology, artificial intelligence and an update in pharmacology .
This transcript has been edited for clarity:
Nichols:
Hello everyone. I’m Kelly Nichols. I am the co-chair with Dr Chous here. I am the Dean and Professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Optometry and it is just an honor to be here today with the chair of this meeting.
Chous:
I am Paul Chous. I’m in Tacoma, Washington; I have a practice that emphasizes diabetes. And it was a joy to have our first session this morning, which was the keynote address. We had an interesting panel of sorts of people for different subspecialty areas talking about various aspects of practice, which I think enriched us all.
Nichols:
Yeah, yeah, I thought it was a really good approach to start a meeting to get a little bit about the highlights of these particular fields, and then kind of a teaser for some of the lectures that are going to take place on the next two days. So it was really good. It was nice to have optometry and ophthalmology co-chairs together. I think it was maybe almost a first, so it was very exciting that we were featured by Optometry and Ophthalmology Times. So Paul, what was—what was something that stood out to you?
Chous:
Well, so one of the talks that I found most relevant is just practice burnout and self care. What can we do to re-engage ourselves with us, with our practices, and you know, how common is the phenomenon? So I think we got great feedback from everyone on the panel about, you know, strategies to make exercise more enjoyable and not burn out so quickly. What about you, Kelly?
Nichols:
Well, I also liked that it involved technology. So there are things that we can do to, you know, fix our work environment that will potentially allow us to be more comfortable and have fewer injuries, perhaps, as we go forward. So that was good too.
I liked how there were comments from the audience, as well as the panel about the future, as with optometry and–optometry students, ophthalmology residents and how, what care will look like as we move forward, related to the self-care and quality of life, and you know, kind of a work-life balance. So that was a nice discussion too, don’t you think?
Chous:
Absolutely. Dr. Nichols did a great job talking about new mechanisms for ocular drug delivery and the like. So it was fascinating. Something that I think in the next few years, we can look at an explosion probably of this kind of products on the market for our patients.
Nichols:
Yes, absolutely. And another thing we started this session with was AI. AI and optometry and ophthalmology and what the next 10 years are really going to be like – is going to change tremendously in terms of the amount of technology that we see and the reliance on technology for better patient care. And I think that’s the most important thing. It is not going to replace us as practitioners; it will improve our ability to care for our patients and provide better outcomes.
Chous:
Yes, I think that’s right. There’s a lot of fear out there, at least in our profession, and people I’ve talked to about artificial intelligence replacing us, but hopefully what it will do is help us do our jobs better, right ? So you can stratify people according to their risk, using AI as a tool for you, the human investigator, to better care for your patients.
Nichols:
And would you go ahead and mention a little bit about the diabetes part of it?
Chous:
Oh, so I talked a little bit in terms of artificial intelligence. Yes, I talked a little. I just talked a little bit about diabetes, and some of the things that we need to be aware of in terms of using continuous glucose monitoring, especially in all patients, whether they have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, who have been on insulin therapy as a means of improving their quality of life and actually lowers their blood glucose levels over time, reducing the risk of eye disease. And just the fact that the most important time to intervene in any patient with diabetes is before they have retinopathy or when it’s mild, because I’ve shown some data that indicates that if we wait for retinopathy to get worse, it really is to tighten your glucose control. ineffective in preventing the disease from progressing further.
Nichols:
I think it highlights the importance of prevention, primary prevention and trying to get it before it even exists. So, looking forward to the rest of the meeting and hearing the rest of the conversations today and tomorrow. A lot of exciting things are planned. And we hope that our viewers online as well as our attendees in person will enjoy it.
Chous:
Absolutely. So excited to be with Dr. Nichols, who is one of my heroes in the profession, to lecture and present.
Nichols:
Oh, you’re too sweet. You too.
Chous:
Fantastic, thank you very much. Thank you. Nice show.
