CXL Continuing Education Lecture

Post date: Aug 04, 2012 3:58:38 PM

I am so excited about this summer for two reasons: Both the XXX Summer Olympics (what a risque name) and CXL are finally here!

While "athletic" would never be used a descriptor when talking about me, I do love watching these athletes compete. Interviewing athletes can sometimes be a challenge, as I learned in my high school journalism days. This next paragraph is dedicated to the many well-used phrases our athletes use day in and day out to get the job done.

Dr. Holzman, Dr. Solomon, and I tried our best to put on a good CE lecture about keratoconus treatment options this past Thursday night. It seems that all of our hard work and dedication paid off in a big way. We tried really hard to keep our focus and apply all of the training that we had in order to pull this off successfully. We'd like to thank all our fans for coming out to support us. We could not have done this without you. This Gold Medal is dedicated to everyone out there. : )

All joking aside, I do hope that all of the Affiliates in attendance found the KCN lecture to be educational. Both of our main speakers made some solid points.

Dr. Solomon's main point about epi-on vs off was on key: In science, we do everything in a logical manner. When CXL is first introduced into the USA, we should strive to first prove efficacy of the procedure by following the Dresden Protocol. Only after proving efficacy of CXL as a viable KCN treatment can we then evolve into refining this technique.

To be honest, my exposure to Intacs is quite limited, so I enjoyed Dr. Holzman's lecture on this procedure. Those pictures he showed scared me a little bit. Like, how would I manage those complications?! But, then I calmed myself down when I remembered that my trusted surgeon's post-ops will probably be like his LASIK and PRK post-ops: pristine and care-free!

This was also my first time to make a presentation in front of a crowd larger than what could fit into an exam room, so, like, 2 people. Nervous as all get out up there, but hopefully I was able to communicate some key points about the upcoming CXL study. Big props go out to Drs. Conness and Gammon for being the most sharply dressed ODs in the audience. That just really caught my eye as I was scanning the audience and trying to remember to speak slowly, as Joan always points out to me! - jw