Exhibitions & Meetings
Putting the focus on unlocking dry eye potential in practice
Putting the focus on unlocking dry eye potential in practice
Ninety enthusiastic independents attended iDay24 at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham on Monday which had the theme ‘Unlocking Your Practices’ Dry Eye Potential.’
Organised by Proven Track Record, in a change this year the event was hosted by Andy Clark, who was the co-creator of The Dry Eye Project, which taught 1,000 practitioners to establish dry eye clinics and won the Education Award at the Optician Awards in 2012.
The iDay24 speakers were renowned practitioners who shared their experiences of setting up a successful dry eye clinic. They included optometrist, researcher and inventor Dr Trusit Dave, Nick Black of BBR Optometry, Craig McArthur, co-owner of Peter Ivins Eye Care and specialist optometrist Craig Wilcox.
A popular panel session featured contact lens optician Beth Ralph, specialist optometrist Purvi Thomson, optometrist Dermot Keogh and Sharon Flora, BCLA Dry Eye Practitioner of the Year 2023. From a variety of backgrounds, they shared their strategies essential to the success of their dry eye practice.
The iDay24 concluded with a lively interactive session led by Dr Trusit Dave and Craig McArthur called ‘Craig and Trusit’s Excellent (Dry Eye) Adventure!’
iDay24 organiser Nick Atkins, of Proven Track Record, said: “Following on from last year’s focus on making a profit from the professional services that independent practices provide, this year’s iDay looked at the business opportunities provided by better managing dry eye from the practice’s existing patient base.
“You don’t have to invest in lots of high tech kit but charging a fee for a basic slit-lamp examination and invasive break-up time is doing both the patient and practice a disservice. Similarly trying to squeeze dry eye advice into the end of a sight test benefits neither party.
“The information and ideas presented by our stellar speaker line-up really helped delegates decide on whether dry eye clinics were right for their practice and just how far they wanted to develop the service. Many of the delegates made a ‘weekend’ of it by attending the Specialist Club Annual CPD Conference on the Sunday before, achieving almost 20 points in the process.
“This was the 19th anniversary of Independents Day and the plans for celebrating the 20th anniversary conference are already underway.”
