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.
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 recognized 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 recognized 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…