OT sat down with representatives of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) to discuss the themes and outcomes of this year’s BCLA Clinical Conference and Exhibition, which took place in Birmingham last month.
Optometrist and past president of the BCLA, Sarah Farrant, and new CEO, contact lens optician Brad Parkes, highlighted that the overall themes of the conference concentrated on how to translate evidence into clinical practice and giving patients a voice, “understanding things from their perspective.”
“A lot of the themes of the talks, lectures, and workshops were about how to engage those two principles,” Farrant told OT. “Patients were on stage communicating their own experiences and journeys within the world of their own eye care,” she added.
Keeping up to date with the latest in research enables clinicians to engage in understanding “how to then take that home to our practices to offer up all that wonderful knowledge to our patients every day in practice so we can really change people’s lives,” Farrant added.
Parkes emphasised how the event’s programme brought together a combination of science and technology for front-line practitioners “so we can take that great research and great science and get it into front-line practices so that it does have the impact on the public.”
Held once every two years, this year’s conference, which took place at the ICC on 5–7 June, attracted delegates from across the globe.
“BCLA is a family. People meet here every couple of years and have been meeting for years and coming together from all corners of the globe,” Parkes highlighted.
In-person conferences are important for practitioners, Farrant explained. “I think it’s so vital to be able to chat with your peers,” she said
“There is so much value in still meeting as a community of members and of people who really want to engage in learning,” she added.
Farrant also emphasised the importance of contact lens patients to practices, underpinning the importance of maintaining contact lens education.
She explained: “Studies have been done that show contact lens wearers, as a patient base, are our most profitable, our most loyal, and our most advocate patients. We know they are very powerful to have and keep in a practice.”
“What’s wonderful about the way you build a relationship with a contact lens patient is [it is] just different. You see them more frequently, they are more engaged, they are getting a solution that often they love, and that is giving them a depth and breadth to their lifestyle that they lacked potentially before,” Farrant added.
“It’s so important to invest in good education and good knowledge to then be able to achieve success for those patients,” Farrant concluded.
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