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 SAX
@ LAX
This missive was begun at LAX en route home from a fantastic
trip. The downside was that I left on Tuesday evening and only got home on
Thursday morning. Such is life when one travels internationally from NZ. Apart
from Australia most places are damn far. The upside was a business class upgrade
into a half full cabin. Excellent.
Speaking of Australia it seems Aussies are taking over the ski fields of the
world. I guess it has something to do with them coming through the GFC
relatively unscathed?
The Aussie ski conference in Rusutsu, Japan was once again a success with a good
balance between ski and CE. Apparently my presentations were well received. For
those that are interested it will once again take place at Selva Val Gardena in
the Italian Dolomites in 2011. Val Gardena is surely one of the top ski resorts
and definitely worth a visit. Check out
www.skiconf.com.au and see
In Contact March
2009 for more on Val Gardena.
Menicon
After the ski conference I spent two days in Tokyo. A great city.
I met with a number of people from Menicon who looked after me superbly and had
an interesting visit to their Tokyo Clinic. Another highlight was attending the
famous Tuna auctions at 5.00AM followed by a breakfast of raw fish at 6.30AM. I
must admit I gagged mildly while swallowing the delicacy known as
Shirako…
As most of you will recall Paul Rose and his business partner Ian Jennings sold
Rose K to Menicon in 1998, for a significant sum. (See NZ Optics October 2008).
I’ve used Menicon products for at least two decades. Kiwi’s will be most
familiar with the excellent Progent Contact Lens Cleaner as well as the Zone
Quick Phenol Red Thread Test, Menicon CRT lenses and the range of other quality
lenses such as Menicon Z.
Menicon is a large family owned contact lens manufacturer that dominates the
Japanese RGP market. Rose K was an acquisition designed to get them more of an
international market share. Many people in the NZ optical industry don’t fully
appreciate the magnitude of what Paul and Ian achieved with the Rose K lens
system and eventual sale to Menicon. In twenty years they created a sound
Keratoconic and Irregular Cornea lens fitting system that has become the leading
brand of its type internationally. A remarkable achievement and one that’s not
given the recognition it deserves, probably as a result of the old Kiwi ‘tall
poppy syndrome’. Rose K is so well recognised in the international Keratoconus
world that if Paul was an Aussie he’d likely have a university building named
after him. One only needs to take a look at the new
Brien Holden Vision Institute
to see what I mean. At any rate Menicon recognised the value of the brand
and Rose K design and are taking it to the next level. They have also recently
purchased David Thomas, a leading UK based international supplier of contact
lenses. Optimed is another new
partnership they have entered using the
i-Vue and
Captiv8
offerings in the Asian market. They also recently delivered a press release
about their flat pack
technology which will certainly be a significant step in the evolution of
disposable contact lenses. Flat pack technology was part of an earlier
acquisition of AquaSoft. The legendary Steve Newman of Capricornia fame - and
creator of the famous NuToric design - is working on this and other great
technology.
They’re on a roll.
I think we’ll see them become a significant player in the international contact
lens world.
GSLS
After Japan it was off to Vegas for the 2010
GSLS.
It was a great meeting with some top class sessions, a strong clinical focus and
enough EBM and research to keep the fanatics happy. As you know I believe the
current, trendy EBM hyper-fixation is a bit over the top. As one commentator so
aptly put it, “absence of evidence is not the equivalent of evidence of
absence” and it may simply be that a study hasn’t yet been done to prove it
one way or another!
There were numerous workshops and some excellent multi-presenter panels that
allowed enough time to get stuck into such topics as Keratoconus, Irregular
Astigmatism, Dry Eye, OK, Myopia and large diameter lenses. I took part in a
well received session on dry eye. CL Spectrum Editor, Jason Nichols chaired our
session and provided insights on market research, dry eye and comfort
statistics. I then handled the clinical assessment and management of dry eye
followed by Lyndon Jones who handled the research side. What I found most
interesting is that all three of us were largely of like mind and that the
market, clinical and research aspects were complementary and dovetailed very
well. A pre-conference fundamental session on keratoconus also went off very
well. Spread over a three hour session it featured Pat Caroline, Eef van der
Worp, Randy Kojima and yours truly. Again we integrated very well and although
we had some variations in management strategies (like large lenses vs sclerals
vs small lenses) there were some excellent clinical pearls and much synergy.
Randy gave some great insights on the use of the (Medmont) Corneal Topographer.
I’ve put Randy forward for future NZ conferences as he’d be great value. There
were others too that would be great to have down under. It’s possible that some
international road-shows may develop from these multi-practitioner sessions and
they certainly seem to be a model that is working very well these days.
I was amazed at the number of presentations on sclerals and semi-scleral lenses.
Australasian practitioners would appear to be way behind US, European and in
particular Dutch practitioners in the application of scleral lenses.
Censored!
One issue that came to the fore at the GSLS was the intention of
CPD officials to ban the use of any ‘brand names’ in presentations or handouts.
It’s a ridiculous, over the top knee-jerk reaction that although well
intentioned is potentially contrary to the aims of CPD. Speakers were required
to sign a contract to this effect. In practice what we saw was an extreme
obliteration of all brand names. I used a blacked out ‘CENSORED’ box to delete
all trade names while another speaker blatantly stood up and sold a specific
lens product without so much as a disclosure that he consulted for the company
concerned. Most other speakers took the middle ground with some, relevant
mention of brand names.
I think it gets back to what I have always espoused. BALANCE.
As the new CPD blanket ban on brand names is still in draft form I appealed to
the largely US audience to honour their 1st amendment rights of freedom of
speech and was gratified to receive a strong ovation.
What Goes in Vegas…
Of course Vegas would not be Vegas without the associated
shenanigans. A good time was had by all.
I made a point of seeing Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show ‘LOVE’
as I missed it last time. Quite simply I’d rate it as the best show of it’s type
that I’ve seen and it relegates Cats, Phantom and the like into
the ‘has been‘ category. Even Cirque’s acclaimed mega-show
Ka didn’t rate. One
word of advice: Don’t get sucked in by the promise of cheap seats at ‘last
minute’ outlets in Vegas. I got great seats five rows from the front, alongside
Miss Michigan from the Miss America pageant, at the box office, for less money
than the cheap seat outlets.
I’ve also seen
Invictus - quite fittingly in Pretoria, South Africa. A great movie. I
know many Kiwi’s are pooh-poohing the film (excuse the pun), due to their recall
of events but in fact the movie is not about the opponents on the day. It really
deals with the great
man Madiba
and the issues at that time
in South Africa.
Avatar in 3D at IMAX is however the best movie I’ve seen in years: Better than
LOTR I would have to say.
Silicone, Collagen and Mink
From Vegas we headed to Aspen for some R&R after what’s been my
most hectic speaking and traveling year ever. It was a ‘boys trip’ with four of
us covering the 20s, 30s, 50s and 60s age groups. I am pleased to report that
the two oldies kicked butt in ski racing and pool. I managed a resort top ten
and bronze medal for downhill slalom and the sixty year old in our group managed
a second place and bronze too, all achieved with rental gear. Ski conditions
were excellent although only a fraction of what Aspen and Snowmass usually
deliver. Of the two weeks skiing I did there were only two blue sky days. The
rest provided snow and/or grey conditions. Rusutsu won the powder battle but for
sheer, fast downhill cruising it would be hard to beat Snowmass or Aspen
Highlands. We got regular ‘air’ on some of the big downhill slopes. Rental gear
is the way to go and I was much impressed with my top-rated
K2 Apache Recon’s. My
Oakley ski
gear and NZ designed 260
Icebreaker thermals kept me toasty while my
Giro Bad Lieutenant kept my head warm and what was left of my brain after
Vegas, intact. Some excellent
Bolle
ski goggles hopefully slowed the inevitable cataracts and offered additional
UV and facial protection. Of course my iPhone kept me tuned in to the right
vibes. I reckon music while you ski is a real boon to rhythm and timing.
Yeeehah.
I’ve never seen so much silicone, collagen, Mink and Botox as I saw each night
in Aspen.
Plastic People.
So now it’s back to what’s left of the NZ summer. Unfortunately I missed our
homegrown peaches but a nice crop of tomatoes awaited me.
I have some smaller trips and presentations planned for OZ in March, May and
June with a likely jaunt to present at the American Academy in San Francisco in
November after a few days in ZA en-route to celebrate my Dad’s 80th. SnowVision
is also on the cards and possibly a trip to Western Australia.
I’ll get back to some clinical features, abstracts, products and more as 2010
develops.
Enjoy what’s left of summer…
For more information or any comments email Alan at incontact@optom.co.nz.
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