Wise to the World
Write Your Way to Las Vegas
ONCE AGAIN,
Vistakon is sponsoring travel grants to Optometry's Meeting, which will be held
in Las Vegas between June 21-25, 2006.
Vistakon
invites students to write about "Organized optometry: Why is it important to you
as a future practitioner and how can the profession get young O.D.s to take an active
role?"
A faculty member from each school
or college of optometry will select the two best entries. Winning students will
receive a $500 travel grant. The student who submits the best essay at the national
level will receive an additional prize of $1000.
Applications and guidelines are available
from your school's AOSA trustee or from Carol Friehaut, AOSA executive director.
You can contact Ms. Friehaut at (314) 991-4100, ext. 231 or at
cmfrei@aol.com.
If you're interested in applying for
a Vistakon travel grant, submit your essay to the faculty member listed on the application
form by Apr. 3, 2006.
CL SAVVY
Bring Back the Basics
James W. Hartzell, O.D. Des Moines, Iowa
Contact lenses are becoming
more sophisticated every day, but old fitting strategies, such as left vs. right
lens comparisons are sometimes best.
Over the years, I've narrowed
my lens parameter options to a few good choices, but I also could use the additional
information side-by-side comparison would provide.
Now, when I'm fitting patients with
contact lenses, I do a side-by-side comparison of different parameters, such as
base curves and lens materials. This extra step gives me the opportunity to see
how the lenses behave on the eye and listen to patients' initial subjective reactions.
After patients wear the lenses for
a few days, I reevaluate their eyes and decide which parameters work best for them.
Seeing lenses on the patients after a reasonable period of "real world" experience,
I am comfortable with the parameters I choose and confident my patients will leave
the office with maximal clear, comfortable and functional contact lenses.
New Home-based Test for Glaucoma
MANY PATIENTS
with glaucoma don't realize they're losing sight to this condition until their optometrist
diagnoses them. Now, a new FDA-cleared, on-line test may help patients detect glaucoma-related
visual loss just by looking at their own internet-capable computers.
Peristat
is an automated digital perimetry test that presents light stimuli on a computer
monitor. The program uses the patient's responses to create a high-fidelity contrast
sensitivity map of the test-taker's peripheral vision. Doctors and perimetry specialists
review the results of the 2- to 3-minute test and e-mail their findings to the test-taker
within 24 hours. Based on the results, they may recommend the patient follow-up
with an eyecare specialist for additional testing. The cost per test is $15.00.
So far, clinical studies show
the Peristat test has a 90% screening accuracy. For more information or to take
a free demo test, go to keepyoursight.com
Optometric Management, Issue: March 2006