Nordic Vision - nr 5 2006 - Sveriges Kontaktlinsförening

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OUTLOOK | XXX JAN BERGMANSON 8 NORDIC VISION 5·2006 I am inviting you to fl y to Houston, Texas, and attend our 23 rd Cornea, Contact Lenses and Contemporary Vision Care Conference, December 1 to 3, 2006. ”As presenters we are inviting some of the leading researchers and clinicians in the fi eld, but they also must be great speakers. At this meeting you will get the latest research fi ndings and newest product developments.” Christmas Shopping in Texas This is a high quality meeting and one of the oldest ones in the US. Our meeting was started by the legendary pioneer in the contact lens fi eld, Professor Montague Ruben, who made his fame at Moorefi eld Eye Hospital in London and rounded off his illustrious career at University of Houston College of Optometry. I have enjoyed the chairmanship of this meeting for the last 18 years or so and it is attended by some 300 optometrists, which mak es it a good sized meeting by our standards. Our success and longevity in the tough US meeting market with, if anything, too many educational programs, is based upon quality and content. As presenters we are inviting, some of the leading researchers and clinicians in the fi eld, but they also must be great speakers. At this meeting you will get the latest research fi ndings and newest product developments straight from ‘the horse’s mouth’. Th at is why you should come! And, if you come, you can do all your christmas shopping here in Texas and your travel expenses will be paid for!! We only pay 8.25 per cent in moms – not 25 per cent – and on top of that everything is cheaper here. What’s on our menu this year? First of all we have the inimitable and incomparable Professor Brien Holden, who loves Texas and its big steaks. Patrick Caroline, well known to visitors of the old ERS symposia organized by Bausch & Lomb, is presenting a lecture this year and he is still making the fi tting of gaspermeable lenses seem easy and making a lot of sense. One of our most popular speakers, Dr. John Goosey, is back to tell you the latest in corneal surgery. Dr Goosey was a great success at the recent SKLF conference and was invited back to Scandinavia last summer to talk to Danish surgeons. He is going to discuss some new surgical developments, of which we may wish to be aware. Th is is a diff erent topic to that he presented at the SKLF conference last spring. Earl Smith, OD, PhD, Dean of our College and a world renowned myopia researcher, will discuss his most recent work on this huge public health issue. We also have a mini-symposium on ocular allergies with several prominent speakers. Every year we present an award to a worthy researcher or clinician in our fi eld and this year our awardee is Mark Willcox, who is an outstanding researcher in the fi eld of corneal infective disease. He comes out of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. I am pleased to tell you that we have enlisted other incredible speakers presenting on relevant and interesting topics. We have an optometrist, who is also a malpractice trial lawyer, who mesmerizes, if not putt ing fear, in the audience. At one time he was one of my brightest students, but now he is a practicing lawyer! We have in the program, as always, some colleagues from University of Houston College of Optometry, who present some of their interesting work on contact lenses, tears, pre- and post-op care and ocular therapeutics. We start on the Friday afternoon with some lectures and workshops at our university clinics and on Saturday and Sunday we have our lectures presented at the Omni Hotel, one of the best hotels in Houston. Th e meeting rate for a room in this luxury hotel, where celebrities like Clint Eastwood chooses to stay, is about 100 dollars. Yes, one hundred bucks!!! Where in Stockholm can I stay for that amount of money? Under which bridge? In addition, this hotel is literally next door to the Galleria, one of the greatest shopping centers in the world! Indeed, I have friends from various countries in the world who arrive here with empty suitcases!! Now, do not get me started on food – one of my passions – but in Houston you have internationally acclaimed restaurants off ering a wide variety of cuisines. I promise, we have a lot more to off er than BIG steaks. Check out our unique Texas pit smoked barbeque, the tasty TexMex cuisine and the fabulous seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. Add to that all the
trappings of a big city, cheaper drinks and California (and Texas) wines and you are not going to walk away unhappy or undernourished from Houston. The bottom line is that it will not cost you much, you’ll have a good time and, above all, you’ll learn something – hopefully a lot! If this is not enough to convince a few of you to come for a visit I will drop the registration fee for you, my Swedish colleagues, by 100 dollars to somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 dollars. The University of Houston College of Optometry continuing education (CE) program is an important link between us and our profession. One of our priorities is to serve our profession, but our CE department has to be profi table. Our Cornea meeting is traditionally our biggest program both in terms of attendance and profi t. Th e success of this meeting is one reason I can give our Viking visitors a break on the registration fee. Talking about money brings to my mind another aspect of our operations, our clinical program. Our clinical program must be solvent – it must not cost the tax payer money for me to examine a patient. We are a teaching institution, so we are not going to be a high volume clinic, but we must be effi cient and fi scally responsible. Indeed, if we can do better than just break even we will make money that we can use to buy new equipment and to support education and research. Th e latest fi gures on the income of our clinic activities have just come in and I will here share with you some interesting numbers. Our clinics earned between 4 to 5 million dollars last year and while accomplishing this feat we managed to give away more than 500 000 dollars to indigent care. Th at is right – we gave people, who had no money, free services to the tune of half a million dollars! We help poor people, members of our society without insurance, citizens in fi nancial straights, hurricane victims etc. We turn nobody away! I hear sometimes, when visiting Sweden, that doctors in the US are only interested in money and, if you, the patient, don’t have money or insurance, you are out of luck. Now you know that this is a lie, or as we say in Texas, it is ‘BULLSHIT’. Th is year, by being more effi cient and promoting our services better, we took in an extra cool million dollars! Who says that state institutions must cost the taxpayers a lot of money? An important aspect of our clinical program is not only to provide excellent patient care and clinical training of tomorrow’s practitioners, but also to teach our young clinicians to charge for their services. We must request payment for the care we provide. Th e State of Texas does not permit us to give away services and material. However, when patients do not have the means to pay for these services or materials, such as spectacles, contact lenses and medications, we have programs to help out. Most of our income is derived from insurance, both federal and private. To get to that money we must fi le the claims correctly, which is a huge subject area itself. Our records must back up whatever we ask to receive and, in the case of federal money, it is a felony (read likely imprisonment) to fi le a false claim. Th is is a serious business our student clinicians must learn and running our clinics as a private entity is a very good lesson for them to take with them into practice aft er completing the qualifi cations for a license. Finally, come to Texas and enjoy our hospitality, do some Christmas shopping and most importantly receive great continuing education by the best in the business! University of Houston College of Optometry invites you to their 23 rd Cornea. Contact Lenses and Contemporary Vision Care Conference. OUTLOOK | JAN BERGMANSON XXX NORDIC VISION 5·2006 9
Page 1 and 2: VETENSKAPLIG TIDSKRIFT FRÅN SVERIG
Page 3 and 4: Mot nya mål? i detta nummer kan du
Page 5 and 6: Istockfoto Restriktioner mot kontak
Page 7: att se som att optikern överskride
Page 12 and 13: VETENSKAPLIGT Det Röda Ögat Förf
Page 14 and 15: VETENSKAPLIGT Objektiva symptom: R
Page 16 and 17: VETENSKAPLIGT Acanthamöbakeratit O
Page 18 and 19: 18 NORDIC VISION 5·2006 I septembe
Page 20 and 21: XXX Vision for All reser regelbunde
Page 22 and 23: XXX NY endagslins en fuktig och fr
Page 24 and 25: EXAMENSARBETE som fi nns i vissa ö
Page 26: EXAMENSARBETE Skillnaden mellan bes
Page 29 and 30: SAMMANFATTNING Ögat är ett komple
Page 31 and 32: den att mäta syn är den subjektiv
Page 33 and 34: Visus 1,4 1,2 1 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0 H
Page 35 and 36: Tänkbara orsaker till torrhetssymp
Page 37 and 38: PureVision Multi-Focal Bausch & Lom
Page 39 and 40: Topcon Scandinavia, Box 25, 431 21

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