Eyes On Eyecare’s (EOE’s) Eyes On 2024, the largest virtual event of 2023, covered the hottest optometry and ophthalmology trends coming in the new year over the course of a two-day educational summit.
Refresh me on this event.
Held November 10- 11, 2023, the meeting featured 6 hours of complimentary COPE-accredited CE exclusively curated for optometrists and ophthalmologists, expert-led live education sessions, an exhibit hall of leading ophthalmic brands (think Johnson & Johnson Vision, Apellis, Iveric Bio, Viatris, and more), as well as thousands in prizes and giveaways.
With this year’s theme of “The Future in Focus,” the 3,000+ attendees were given a look at the most important research, technology, and products for the year ahead.
Name a hot topic.
Innovation, according to EOE Co-Founder and CEO Matt Geller, OD.
“In this last year, two retinal drugs were made available as well as new approaches to treat and manage glaucoma, cataracts, myopia, oculoplastics, and more,” Dr. Geller stated.
He added: “It’s almost impossible to keep up with the trends if you have a busy practice—but in two days, Eyes On 2024 delivered clinical and technical knowledge optometrists and ophthalmologists could immediately leverage when they returned to their practices.”
And the sessions?
Among the wide variety, a few of the most notable sessions included:
- Visualizing Geographic Atrophy: The Importance of Early Detection for Early Protection
- Presented by Amy Cryz, OD
- Neurotrophic Keratitis: Overview of Disease, Diagnosis, and Therapeutic Strategies
- Presented by Rajvi Shah, PharmD (sponsored by Dompé)
- Healing Our Healers: Provider Burnout and Mental Health
- Presented by Francie Broghammer, MD, FABPN
- Rising Above: Truly Differentiating Your Practice
- Presented by Bethany Fishbein, OD
- Retina Update: Looking Forward to 2024
- Presented by Joshua Mali, MD, and Jeffry D. Gerson, OD, FAAO
Any expert speakers I might know of?
Most likely. The meeting’s best-in-class clinical programming was led by several experts, including (but definitely not limited to):
- Joshua Mali, MD
- Francie Broghammer, MD, FABPN
- Eva Kim, MD
- Gregory D. Parkhurst, MD, FWCRS
- Ahmad Fahmy, OD, FAAO
- Damon Dierker, OD, FAAO
- Marc R. Bloomenstein, OD, FAAO
- Steve Vargo, OD, MBA
- Bethany Fishbein, OD
- Selina McGee, OD, FAAO
Who won this year’s Optometry Innovation Awards?
Sponsored exclusively by Dompé, the second annual OIA announced the top three 2023 winners:
- 1st place ($20,000)
- Mariam Labib, Doctor of Optometry Candidate 2025 (New England College of Optometry [NECO]) (Improove VR)
- 2nd place ($12,500)
- Peter Huffman, OD, and Amanda Bennett, LDO (EyeHR)
- 3rd place ($7,500)
- Kaleb Abbott, OD, MS, FAAO (SunSnap Kids)
See here for details on OIA and this year’s winning innovations (hint: top prizes included virtual reality software, a new HR platform, and customizable pediatric sunglasses).
And lastly, what if I couldn’t attend?
Not to worry! A select number of sessions from the meeting will be available on-demand soon, so stay tuned …
In the meantime, however, click here to sign up for free and unlimited access to EOE’s CE/CME and non-CE courses, delivered by leading key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the ophthalmic and optometric fields.
So what’s next?
Next up in the Eyes On Eyecare educational line-up is Eyes on Dry Eye 2024, which will be held February 23-24, 2024.
Learn more and register here.