Interview: New contact lens technologies
Welcome. Everyone my name is Lee and I'm here with Dominic's, Ezekiel from Ezekiel eyes welcome demo hi. Lee thank you very much for the opportunity, thanks. For joining us done one so you just had a. Massive. Trip, over to the US you spent - over 24, hours on a plane, yelling. Rapes all the way over across, to, the eastern, United States. Tell. Us a bit about where. You went to and where. What. The conference was for so. This is an annual, global. Symposium on, contact, lens specialty, so all. Well. 99%. Of the practitioners, there or fed a lot of regional lenses and. The. It. Was an amazing, conference but I need the content, was absolutely. Sensational. And this, was held in Las Vegas and I'm not sure if you've ever been to Las Vegas but Las Vegas is an interesting place it attracts a lot of people on, the hope that they're going to make a lot of money so. It's a you know it's an interesting place, a lot of interesting. People interesting, dynamics. But. Getting. Back to the contact lens side so these these. Presenters. I mean the content was just out of control it was, absolutely. Amazing so. Everything. That I went to and you know this was the one other difficulties, I had is. Every, hour or, every two hours there's, six streams, of lectures, running and. There's sometimes I was torn between two or three but, I can only get to one so you. Know it was at times it was a bit disappointing because I like I really want to see that and there oh and you know this present is amazing as well so, that, made it a bit tough there. Nowhere in streams of you know whether, it was school or lenses, or myopia, management, or there was a particular. Stream there which was just the Americans. On the way they do their billing and health care providers. And things like that so you, know it was it was great. It, was hard, going to make some of those decisions as, to what. To go to and what not to go to, this. Particular year, they got nearly a thousand, delegates so it was it was the biggest I. Was. Very privileged, to go I think I've traveled, the furthest there was a. Researcher. They're from. Queensland University of, Technology say. From, Brisbane but yeah. It's a long haul but it, was really. Worth it you, know as I said earlier the quality. Was, amazing. And. You know we're, all very, very. Like-minded, there. Was. Things. That really, grabbed my attention in, particular was, you know we're fitting a lot more scleral. Lenses, and. Let me just show you my t-shirt, there this is from the scleral lens society. Education, group which, I was lucky enough to get my. Fellowship. Pin, at this conference and. These the you know we I'm putting. A lot more squirrels. Have. Been for 29 years but the the, the. Squirrel world has changed a lot with a lot of really, innovative.
Lens. Designs. One. In particular that we're using a lot which is originated. Out of the USA, and has, recently been licensed, to a lab in Australia, so the. Beautiful thing about that for. Me and. My patients, and it's only a week or so turnaround instead of a minimum, of three weeks coming from the US so delivery. Time is, important, the. Other massive. Bonus. About this particular design, lens compared, to what we, were using previously, is, we can do a lot, of adjustments, to the. Curve. In, the middle on the back and the, mid periphery, and the edge and we. Can tailor make in, four. Different quadrants, so at zero, degrees, 90. 180 and, 270 each. Edge. Can, one can lift off of one can drop back so it's very very individualized. Which is amazing. And. Then. Also we can put two pounds on the front which. A lot of other of. These floral designs, is, very. Minimalistic. So what. We can offer our patients is you know just, something out of this world I should. Just add that you know for years, now. Optometry. In particular we can map the central. Part. Of the the eye the cornea, the very front but. The wider the eye the sclera, we haven't, been, map and, recently there's been a couple of, what's. Called sclera low-profile. Is where the wider the eye we can actually now measure, so. There was a couple of these instruments, to look at but, the interesting research shows that this the. Wider the eye is very, asymmetrical. So, the. Curve. Of the. Scleral lens which, is sitting on the white in, these two, or, four meridians, are usually. Different. They're not all the same and that's the beautiful thing about having, this particular. Design that Chi, and I using, it Ezekiel eyes where we can change. These curves and like, I said 0 90. 180 and, 270 so, if. I able, to tailor make that shirt we. Can you know get, this fit, to be so much more comfortable for our patient so that was, fantastic. This, particular. Design. They. Launched. A, multifocal. Squirrel. Lens which. Was very interesting, very exciting I haven't. Personally played, with it but you know from what I could see of the studies things look, the. Numbers. And patients. Seem very. Happy with it so that's very. Exciting that's something, else, that. We can have to add to our arsenal and, something else we can offer patients. There. Was a stream. Of, lectures. On my. Own myopia. Prevention, which is a very, hot topic at the moment and. You know they're especially. Well. I mean when you look at somewhere like South Korea where you know a 98% of the population, a short sighted we really want to minimize the. Degeneration. Or and. Hope they're the the. Myopia, progression, to. Minimize when, they're when patients are older in life with. Retinal, detachments, and retinal, tears retinal, holes macular, degeneration and. Things like that and glaucoma so, there, was a big discussion about that and some interesting research which, was a bit, disturbing when. We look at some. Other power profiles. Of what the softly, and just a standard soft lens, daily, that we're, striving patients. So from. A Proactive, point of view and this is the way kite I like to practice is to you.
Know The patients, who are short-sighted with the potential, to become more short-sighted, because. Their age and, or, their parents, and their, myopia. We. Really want to try and nip it in the bud and we have a lot, of really. Really. Good. Tools that we can use whether. They're. Soft. Lenses during the day or reading Linda's overnight I mean there's lots of different Miyoko prevention. Techniques. Out there so it, was. Across. The board there was just lots of really interesting things there was a, one. Of my favorite presenters, on dry. Eye are, Epstein. From, Arizona, and very dry part of the u.s. he presented, on a new. Drop. Which was launched, in the US. Unfortunately. It's not available in Australia, yet but, there. Is something similar that. One. Of the supplies in Australia, do, have and I've, requested some, samples, for cayenne I to play with so I'm. Hoping, we can add something to, a score to help our tryouts. So. You know there's lots of you. Know the, exhibition, area was crazy there's lots of different things there, unfortunately. There's, certain, products that we just can't. Not. Available in Australia yet they, have to go through the regulatory. Authorities, the TTA so maybe. Down. The track but that could be a couple of years away so yeah in terms of, the. Content, was. Absolutely. Amazing it was really really exciting and you know but apart from the content, one. Of the most important things I find of any, conference, Congress. Is what. Happens in. The you. Know in, the. Word. I'm looking for in the passage when I was talking to you know morning, to lunch you. Know at the networking, and talking to other. Optometrists. Or eye care practitioners, whether they're researchers, or clinicians, you. Know how, do you deal. With your dry eye or, how do you deal with you, know keratoconus, and things like that so I'm yeah, it's um it, was really good it was a, fabulous. Congress. It's on its, you know it's on every twelve twelve, months, always. In Vegas at this time of the year because it's cold, so. It's cheaper they have a conference in Vegas for, a convention areas and stuff like that so yeah it was really good there was um. Couple. From Australia, a couple of Sydney one, from Adelaide. Myself from Perth so you know there was ever, a couple, from Brisbane so yeah, it was good but, it was good to talk. To them you know all these other, optometrists. One. Before. You ask the next question lady, sorry there's one other, amazing. Lens which I looked into school. Lens in. After. I became president at the International, Society of contact lens specialist at that conference in Washington, in September October I was. Looking, into this eyeprint, lens which is a scleral, lens where we take a mold of the eye anyway. I saw the. Suppliers. Of that and they are hopefully going to be in Australia later, in this year and they're going to teach, me and we'll hopefully license, me so we. Take an impression of the eye and then. We either send the impression, off but the new technology is to take a scan. Of this, mold and that's. Digitally, step back to the lab and then, very. Clever it goes onto a lathe and they cut, with. A tear. Profile, and you know so the fits are you, know really. Really, amazing, so for those. Patients. Have a very, difficult to fit with a you. Know and, off the shelf and, then, customizing. That shirt for. Your lens this is the next step it's, not gonna be cheap but it's you know amazing, amazing. Fit and made, in a gas, permeable material, so, you know really nice and healthy so, there's a lot of really, really, exciting, things coming, up the, antastic, it. Sounds, like there's some amazing, technology that's, just around the corner and yeah. Thanks very much for Sonya. For her comment, Sonya. Nolan she said yes, great, sharing, Damon Ezekiel love it that you're sharing. Your feedback, and your knowledge and experience so. Thank. You Sonya I must. Pay Sonya, for that she's done a great job. Yes. So, I. Mean one of the one of evenings. We. Had a. Literal. In society, educators. Function. Where, I. Guess. Most of the conference was there because most of us fed you, know well we all fit gasp anymore lenses but a lot of sclera lenses so that was great and then, I was dragged off to the I this.
I Print, the mold in floral there, was a presentation. So there's, a it. Was a really, really, crazy, busy. Conference, cuz they were it was just going to go during. The breaks of lectures and trying to get around to the exhibitors, and trying to get. Into someone's ear about their product was difficult because there's so many people interested. In in these products so, that's always a challenge but, it, was it was very very. Stimulating. And the quality, of lectures was was, really, terrific and. One. Of those presentations. Was we we've, dr. Tom Arnold and colleague, and what was one of the thing is he got from that so. Tom our, Arnold and what was Barnett, they're both. Members of our International Society of contact lens specialists and they were talking about this particular scleral, lens that. Caught a knife it this one that's licensed. From the US and being made in Australia now and they so, they were talking about their experiences. So they would do a case history you know talk about what. They would do you know so it was my patient what I do and I would say well I do this out in the other so it was really interesting is like you. Know the the. Counterproductive. Or, you know a counterpoint, from one you. Know and just how two different angles looking, at the same eye and you. Know a lot of it was similar but you know little. Nuances. Here and there I'd do this and I'd you know go an extra thirty microns deeper, here and things like that so it, was yeah it was, great because there was a couple of lectures on this particular lens collar and I fed one, was on the molding cycle and, then you. Know just the nuances, of how to change, the fit, yeah. It was it. Was great really good it was hard to sleep at night because I'm so over, emulated. I. Love. It that's that's fantastic so. At this conference this was your first conference, as president. Of the International Society, were, you there in an official, role in any way no I wasn't, but I I, was, I just thought you know I I really do need to I, need to go for, myself but I also needed to go for the organization, and you know spread the word see. What. Other delegates that are out there that we should be inviting, into into, our group, so. You know and there were people there that. Are interested so you. Know we we're. Hoping to grow our next conference we're looking at is. About. April 2020. So it's some time away but you, know we need to get. We're. Working, hard now they get sponsorship, and the draft, program, already through for, 2020, so. Yeah it was I just thought in my position I really do need to show. The flag a little bit more and you. Know make sure you. Know some of those shows that are everywhere. In Vegas were well attended. So. I did go to you. Know in for, those that haven't been to Vegas there are a lot of ticket, booths and an. Hour before a show the prices have remarkably, cheaper, so. Um there. Was a couple, from Adelaide and his lovely lady Mindy. Who's and we're all part of the, International, Society of contact lens specialists and Mindy, and I got. A last-minute, ticket to one of these circus Olay shows, and, met, up with this, couple from, from. Adelaide. Just. Fantastic. Show I mean the acrobatics. And the strength of these people, is just just. Incredible. It's. Not as exciting as a scleral, lens but still it was you know you needed some relief, after a heavy day of talking eyes. It's. Great to go to take your mind off things and yeah. And be able to explore Vegas, a little bit were there any other highlights, from Vegas. Well. I was very lucky I mean because. Of the way. You. Know where, we live is so far away that the, conference. Finished in pretty much most, abandoned, and left there, was the.
From The International Society of contact lens specialists, who were still in town so, we went out for dinner and then, the next day Greg, he left first thing in the morning and I mean he's from Switzerland, he was flying in on Monday afternoon Monday, afternoon. Evening most like myself so, he. Said well what. Are we going to do why, don't we go and visit the Grand Canyon which. We did we got a helicopter. Ride out there where there was a group of, seven. On this helicopter and the pilot ate. So. I can, I can get you some images of that and that was spectacular. We, were one. Of the beautiful beings we, were so spoiled, the week before I got there they, had rain and horrible weather while I was there it was cool, you know 13. 14 degrees, hardly, any cloud around so you know buzzing, over the Grand Canyon was just. Absolutely. Incredible, it was fantastic. It, was amazing. Experience, really, yep. Something that you know I would hope to take the, the boss and the kids on at some stage. Any. Other Vegas. Sorry leave aigis is one of those places where you can, do, absolutely. You know there's adrenaline everywhere, and you can you know do something if you want to you know do. A you, know bungee jump off this set or whatever you can you know there's stuff out there for everyone. Yeah. So it's you, know to drive to the Grand Canyon is a good two hour drive and you know we didn't have time that was just you know convenient, obviously just jump, in helicopter, sounds very crazy. But yeah that was great really something. I would definitely recommend. Yeah. Just, to give you that perspective sometimes. Being above the world and it just just grace it really, writable back, to you absolutely I see yeah yeah. So. Tell me about some. Of the things that youth, you, probably had a chance to catch. Cod briefly, but there's riether lots of things that you that you hoping, to to, talk about and discuss with, him as well so we we had this crazy thing where I got in got back on Wednesday I work, with car Thursday Friday Saturday morning, and now luckily. For ty he's, up in Singapore, visiting, his family for Chinese New Year which was last night. That was good so there. Wasn't we, didn't have enough time, really, because you, know when I get back from being away it my book is just got chopped. Off which is good I'm not complaining, but it, doesn't give me a lot of time to download, with Kai so I'm hoping, you know when he gets back my, list would have calmed, down a little bit and yeah I'll certainly be I mean I've passed on some literature and we've talked already about the. Asymmetrical. White. Part of the art the sclera of the. Sclera, lenses and, how you. Know the beautiful thing about this design, that we're playing with how we can alter these landing. Zones on the sclera so yeah. No it's good it's yep, time, very. Time for at the moment but that's. That's the way it is yeah, absolutely, so if, if. I was to come, in soon for an appointment. The. Soonest. Things to come that'll, be become. Current weird is EQI so there's you mentioned the dryer, sample. Drops that you've got yes, so I've just. These. Are coming from the Asian states they're hopefully, going to arrive if not the next day or so early next week so I just need to sort. Out what they are and how they compare to what this, Ark, was talking about in the u.s. so. That's an, option obviously you, know through. Our keratoconus, or. Excuse. Me post graft or. Even. Patients who are exceptionally, short-sighted and just you know the health, they're going to get with it rigid lands compared to a soft wins obviously. The vision you know if the the, finessing. Of what we can do with the scleral lens now I'll compare to what we could do is. It's. Tenfold. What. I learned, in Vegas I mean it's it's you know talking, to the. The. Consultants, who. This. Lab and what, they you know how they make them and then if this doesn't work what do we need to do to to, give. More edge lift or it's too too compressed or things like that so it's just spending time with them chatting, about this 7 the other is just crazy. Invaluable, so that that's, leaps. And bounds. So, it's just you know I guess I mean the most important thing is when you you, know for us we're, not generic. Go. Online and book an appointment because, we do so many different things so when patients ring up and they, talked to Lauren. Or D they. Can say we'll look I'm I'm already wearing original Enders I'm having problems with them this is what I think I need or, I'm, coming, in for dry eye and IPL, then, you know we can put. You in the right place depending. On what on what you require and that's easier. To have that conversation over, the phone we certainly throughout. Our website, you. Can log on and you know tell, us about yourself and what you think you need and then.
To, Make that appointment you know is it a 40 minute of 45, minutes a half an hour who. Do you need to see you know is it IPL on chi or so, it just depends and that, I think that. Personalized, doing it you know over the phone we can work out exactly what you do he didn't who's the right person for you to see. Yeah. Absolutely best, thing to do I think you know if someone would like to see, us is is to give us a ring on nine three eight six three six to zero and have, a chat to Maureen if you've got questions that, she, says look this isn't you really need to talk to Damon on car great, will. Ring you back you know in between patients and work. Out are. We the people you need to see and you know and when and what we can do and there's, certainly you. Know patients, who come. In wearing sclera lenses from. Somewhere, else that need attention, you. Know we would actually, get them to come back in without any lenses in because. Of the molding, effect of squirrels we wouldn't really need them to be free. Of them for an hour or two the night before before, they go to sleep and you, know get them in first thing in the morning no lenses and then when they leave they can put their old lenses in but, that's you, know it's all very individualistic. And case-by-case. Yeah. That's fantastic. Donuts, fantastic. Your. Excitement your, enthusiasm, for like, it, is exciting, you know the. The. It's. Those, little bits you, know where you hear patients say you. Know without you I can't I can't work I can't drive and you stand back and realize well that's that's, crazy the, stuff that we're, that we're doing, absolutely. And it's, it's about as he said in one of your updates on Facebook that it's about really, working. Alongside someone, and improving their quality of life, exactly. That yeah you're spot-on that is the bottom, line if we can just give them an extra five, 15%. Whatever it is and make things work and clear it's like wow that is amazing. So, it's great I mean it's great, we've now got we're, adding. To our arsenal, of contact, lenses all, these different things that we can do and customizing. That shirt, it's. Just getting something off is it off the shelf you're. Right yeah, absolutely fantastic. Well it's not, everything that happens, in Vegas stays in Vegas so, it's right it's been fantastic to hear from you and yeah thanks for sharing you enthusiasm. Anytime really, as you can tell I'm very excited. Very passionate, and if, I can help please let. Me know thanks. Lee all right thanks so much oh good, night thank you he's.
2019-02-08 15:39
