08 October 2026
Webinars exploring optical coherence tomography, dispensing, contact lens upgrades, and complaints were on the agenda at the latest Practice Team Day, hosted by OT in partnership with the AOP.
The online event, held on 4 October, was supported by headline sponsor Johnson & Johnson and featured four webinars – now available to watch back on the OT Education Library.
The sessions were designed to combine practice-focused learning with real-world leadership and communication skills to help boost confidence across the whole practice team.
Bansri Shah, dispensing optician and director of Eyelink, led the first session: OCT for everyone.
During the webinar, Shah explored how every member of the practice team can contribute to a confident and seamless OCT service.
Dr Byki Huntjens, education lead at the AOP and host of Practice Team Day, shared her learnings with OT.
She said of the first session: “Is the practice team using a clear patient-friendly message to explain the instruments we use? Patients very often do not have the medical language skills to understand the why and how.”
In a session titled The art of dispensing, James Dawson, dispensing optician, former AOP Councillor, and a contributor to OT, discussed how to tailor dispensing decisions across different ages, prescriptions and everyday visual tasks.
As a take-away message from the session, Huntjens noted that frame choice is an optical consideration driven by fashion: “For example, wearing glasses at the end of your nose is a fashion statement, but this completely changes the optics.”
Discussing a ‘visual wardrobe’ with patients also offers solutions to problems they may experience, she added.
Melanie McDowall, contact lens optician and professional affairs consultant at Johnson & Johnson, considered the role of effective communication in contact lens upgrades – ensuring patients are supported to make informed choices that meet their lifestyle needs.
The session reviewed drivers of physical and visual comfort, the impact of modern lifestyles, and reasons patients may not always disclose discomfort, and also shared practical communication techniques.
Sharing her notes from the session, Huntjens highlighted a key question to ask patients that puts them in the centre of their contact lens care: “Before I start asking you questions about your contact lenses, is there anything on your mind about them?”
Paul Champman-Hatchett, optometrist and clinical adviser to the Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS), explored the subject of Turning complaints into learnings through real-world case studies.
Reflecting on the session, Huntjens noted: “Topics that practices may wish to focus on are myopia management – mostly related to communications around the topic, not the clinical abilities,” emphasising the need for consistency within the practice.
Re-watch sessions from the Practice Team Day on the OT Education Library.
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