I recently returned from a week on the West Coast of USA, primarily in Las Vegas, for the Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS) held in January each year. Fortunately the boss was kind enough to give me an extra five days off before the conference began to explore: I cruised historic Route 66, was humbled by the mighty Grand Canyon, and witnessed extreme natural beauty in Antelope Canyon, the majestic Zion National Park and the Martian landscapes of the Valley of Fire. How things change when you head back into the big smoke though.
For anyone who hasn’t been to Las Vegas, it is truly a visceral assault on the senses: there is no hiding from the colossal walls of LED advertising boards, the ubiquitous stench of marijuana fumes and casino smoke, and the chatter of slot machines and tourists filling ‘The Strip’. Despite the less desirable aspects of Sin City, there is magic here; I was wowed by the dancing Bellagio fountain, the replica canals of the Venetian Hotel and the array of world class entertainment and cuisine options. It was hard not to be entertained!
The GSLS congress was equally overwhelming. Like the size of their coffee and cola cups, the Americans do things on a scale and scope that you just don’t see back home. Even for a specialty meeting, there was in excess of 1000 total attendees, numerous seminar stream options running concurrently (at one point I had a choice of six equally appealing workshop topics to choose between), impressive towering display booths showcasing the newest technologies and well over 100 individual poster presentations to pour over.
However, the really impressive aspect of GSLS 2020 was the sheer number of world experts on specialty contact lenses and myopia control in one place. Sharing thoughts and anecdotes with these influential people was a treat. Pleasingly, they were all very complementary of and interested in how we do things Down Under.
Before the full conference began, the International Forum for Scleral Lens Research ran an interactive afternoon with a mixture of evidence-based quick-fire lectures and passionate discussion among panel and audience members. Key players present included Eef Van der Worp, Greg DeNaeyer, Stephen Vincent, Christine Sindt, Langis Michaud, Muriel Schornack and Daddi Fadel.
The topics included What is the ideal fitting characteristics of a scleral lens to minimise physiological disturbance to the scleral and conjunctiva? What effect does scleral lens wear have on IOP and optic nerve health? And, Are we suffocating the corneae with scleral lens wear? Key take home messages included:
Myopia control and scleral lenses dominated proceedings during the main conference among an array of topics. Interesting titbits included:
In summary, the GSLS congress was a feast of specialty lens knowledge and really highlighted how much interest there is in the field among researchers and clinicians. As a result, the new Global Myopia Symposium (GMS) was announced and will be kicking off in 2021 to complement and extend the education on offer at GSLS. No doubt I will be back and I encourage Kiwi optometrists with an interest in contact lens and myopia to put a trip to Vegas for GSLS on the bucket list: Just don’t expect to have a dull time!
As an aside, some the doyens present at GSLS including Prof James Wolffsohn, Dr Langis Michaud and Dr Maria Liu, are heading our way shortly as keynotes at the Orthokeratology Society of Oceania conference in the Gold Coast on 6 June 2020. These three were involved with the 2019 IMI Myopia White Papers: Don’t miss a chance to learn from these experts later this year!
Alex Petty is a New Zealand optometrist based at Bay Eye Care in Tauranga, with a particular interest and knowledge in specialty contact lenses, ortho-k and myopia control. He is a founding member of NZ Myopia Action Group.