Global Member Newsletter February 2023
MEMBERSHIP PERKS IN FEBRUARY
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2023 Awards deadline closes next week
Three IACLE members will travel to the 4th IACLE World Congress and the British Contact Lens Association’s (BCLA) Clinical Conference & Exhibition this year as winners of the 2023 IACLE Contact Lens Educator of the Year Awards. The 2023 awards ceremony will take place during the Gala Dinner at our 4th World Congress in Birmingham, UK. To apply, please submit an entry using the application form. To nominate a colleague, please fill out their details in the form here. Entries close on Friday 24 February at midnight (EST).
Would you like to become a Fellow of IACLE?
The 2023 Fellowship Exam will take place on Wednesday 22 November 2023, virtually via IACLETOP, in English, Chinese, Spanish Korean and Bahasa. Members who achieve a successful outcome of the exam become eligible to apply for Fellow of IACLE (FIACLE) status. The fee for the Fellowship Exam is the same cost as your membership. For example, if your membership fee is $100, the exam fee will also be $100. Payments must be received by 30 June. Existing FIACLEs can also sit the Fellowship Exam – free of charge – to refresh their knowledge and keep abreast of the latest contact lens developments.
Please note, new members must hold IACLE membership for at least one year before applying for FIACLE status.
Register now. For more information
WC4 stipends
Applications for travel stipends for our 4th World Congress have now closed. Those who have applied for a stipend have been notified by the IACLE Team. Registration for WC4 remains open to all IACLE members.
Register for WC4. For more information
IACLETOP
Complimentary access to a Student Area for members
In 2021, we introduced the Student Area, a space on IACLETOP with the tools to allow educators to produce individual teaching content and assessments while streamlining and integrating IACLE resources, acting as your own online Learning Management System.
To give you a chance to try the area and to see if this resource enhances your teaching, we are offering complimentary access for one year to our members who haven’t yet registered for a Student Area.
Read a Special Notice for more information
Read the fact sheets in: Bahasa – Chinese – English – Korean – Spanish
In our February global webinar, Professor Nathan Efron argued that contact lens wear is intrinsically inflammatory and that this response of the ocular surface is inherently ‘good news’. In an authoritative presentation, Professor Efron reflected on his career in clinical research to discuss this interesting hypothesis and answered questions from the large online audience of mainly IACLE members.
Catch up on the webinar via IACLETOP
NEWS IN FEBRUARY
Image of the Month
Karpagavalli Subramanian from Sankara Nethralaya Medical Research Foundation in Chennai, India, captured these images using a Topcon photo slit lamp of a 27-year-old male patient who reported to the specialty contact lens department following a firecracker injury which resulted in multiple studded foreign bodies on the cornea. His main complaints were blurred vision and photophobia. His BCVA was OU 6/60 which improved to OU 6/9 with PROSE scleral lens. Photophobia was significantly reduced with the lens, and he was able to open his eyes.
Share your photographs with us for the 2023 IACLE Image Library and enter our Image of the Year competition for the chance to win a year of free IACLE membership and a US$100 Amazon voucher.
Would you like to feature in next month’s Image of the Month? Submit your image here
Alcon and WCO dry eye series continues
The World Council of Optometry (WCO) and Alcon have opened registration for their third complimentary global dry eye disease webinar titled ‘Dry Eye Spotlight 3: Management’. The webinar takes place on 14 March and will explore the importance of being choiceful and methodical in different approaches available to manage dry eye. Professor Lyndon Jones is leading the session and features Professors Jennifer Craig and James Wolffsohn.
For more information and to register
Virtual Perspectives with CooperVision next month
CooperVision’s Virtual Perspectives event returns on Sunday 5 March themed ‘Improving lives, one person at a time’. The half-day virtual conference features presentations and panel discussions on successful contact lens wear, myopia management and presbyopia. IACLE President Professor Philip Morgan and Lifetime FIACLE and Director at the Centre for Ocular Research and Education (CORE) Professor Lyndon Jones are moderating the event. The agenda also features IACLE colleagues and members Dr Byki Huntjens and Professor James Wolffsohn.
For more information. Register here
Renew your IACLE membership
Thank you to all our members who have renewed their membership for 2023. We are looking forward to delivering more programs, resources, and events in the coming year. This is a kind reminder that access to our full range of membership benefits – including the resources and programs within IACLETOP and all resources and events under the Teach. Learn. Connect. Initiative – is exclusively available for IACLE members. IACLE membership runs on an annual cycle and expires when payment is not received. Access to full membership benefits ended on 31 January if payment had not been received, and a late fee will be payable for members failing to pay by the end of February.
Please note without active membership, FIACLE status is not valid. Membership renewal is not required for Honorary Members.
More information on how to renew your membership
RESOURCES
Read the latest from Contact Lens & Anterior Eye
The February issue of Contact Lens & Anterior Eye is devoted to specialist contact lenses and features papers on scleral lenses, orthokeratology, and myopia control contact lenses.
3rd Catania’s Primary Care of the Anterior Segment launches soon
The 3rd edition of Catania’s Primary Care of the Anterior Segment, authored by Dr Louis Catania and co-authored by Dr Brian Armitage, launches next month (20 March). The original chapters have been updated, with chapters on the management of pre and postoperative cataract and refractive surgery patients added to the third edition. The publisher is offering a 20% discount on pre-orders starting from 27 February using the discount code ‘AFL01’.
COVID-19 RESOURCE
In a recently published randomized clinical trial, wearing glasses in the community did not have a protective effect on the primary outcome of a reported positive COVID-19 test result. However, study results were limited by small sample sizes and other issues, hence more trials are needed to investigate further.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OUR REGIONS?
AMERICAS
Catch up on the latest Latin American webinars
Every week, Americas Regional Coordinator Guillermo Carrillo hosts the radio program ‘IACLE in the World’ interviewing IACLE members from across the Latin America region. In the past month, 166 IACLE members and eye care practitioners joined our Latin American webinars. We heard from Professor John Jairo Valencia who presented ‘Back surface toric RGPs – a great option’, and Professor Alejandra Martinez who spoke on ‘Perception and assessment: success of failure in fitting children and adolescents with contact lenses’.
Catch up on all Spanish-speaking webinars
ASIA PACIFIC
Industry seminar in India
Around 40 students from Sankara Nethralaya and the Elite School of Optometry in Chennai, India, attended an interactive industry session (21 January). CooperVision Professional Services Manager Rashmi Kanojiya and Professional Services Consultant Sowmya Kumarkrishnan gave an update on the latest CooperVision products. The students learned how to compare anterior segment grading scales using CooperVision’s OptiExpert app and how to determine an individual’s digital usage to promote the Biofinity Energys Lenses.
EUROPE / AFRICA / MIDDLE EAST
BCLA invites IACLE members to upcoming webinar
The British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) invites IACLE members to its upcoming member-only webinar on Wednesday 1 March. Dr Sònia Travé Huarte, IACLE member, postdoctoral researcher and optometrist at Aston University in Birmingham, UK, presents ‘Bringing evidence-based dry eye diagnostics and management into your practice’.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
IACLE TLC (Teach. Learn. Connect) WEBINARS
Visit the IACLE Webinars area on IACLETOP to view the schedule for upcoming webinars.
GLOBAL MEETINGS IN THE COMING MONTHS
14th Annual Congress on Controversies in Ophthalmology, Lisbon, Portugal, 24-25 March. Details.
49th EFCLIN Congress and Exhibition, The Hague, The Netherlands, 20-22 April. Details.
IACLE 4th World Congress, Birmingham, UK, 5-8 June. Details.
BCLA Clinical Conference & Exhibition, Manchester, UK, 9-11 June. Details.
4th World Congress of Optometry (WCO4) and O=MEGA23, Melbourne, Australia, 8-10 September. Details.
American Academy of Optometry, New Orleans, USA, 11-14 October. Details.
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