The prescription of progressive lenses requires a specific attention to ensure the full satisfaction of the presbyopic patients. This workshop will focus on the the key points to consider when refracting a presbyopic patient for both distance and near visions. It will consider the prescription of myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism in case of progressive lenses and will present several methods for prescribing the near addition.

This workshop will be made of 2 parts : a general presentation and  a practical demonstration session attendees will be invited to participate in.  

All participants will be offered a copy of the „Practical Refraction“ Ophthalmic Optics File published by Essilor Academy Europe (in English or in Croatian).

Presenter: Pavel Beneš
Facilitator: Svatopluk Synek 

Information from this workshop help to participants in better understanding of clients´ needs, ocular complications, and visual loss conditions. He or she will be able to speak with client about treatment possibilities and selection of the best optical vision aids

Presenter: Catherine Porter
Facilitator: Nicholas Rumney

The aim of this interactive workshop is to encourage Optometrists to make appropriate use of the binocular vision tests they already have in practice: cover test, convergence assessment (NPC and jump convergence), accommodation assessment (including flippers), and prism fusion range. It will provide a brief refresher on the infrastructure required for binocular vision and discuss the links between accommodation and convergence. After attending practitioners will be able to demonstrate and interpret the results of various basic binocular vision tests, and know how to use simple vision training exercises (brock string, dot card, 3 cats and hart chart accommodative rock) to treat common disorders of convergence and accommodation. The final part of the workshop will involve a discussion of anonymised patient case records. This will enable practitioners to develop a management plan for their patients which they can immediately implement in their own practice.

Presenter: Jonathan Shapiro
Facilitators: Gidon Shapiro and Abed El-Qadir Watad 

The examination of the visual functions of acuity, binocular muscle balance, and cortical integration of the two eyes are traditionally taught and clinically performed in a series of examinations. For example, when a parameter, such as the cylinder correction and axis, has been determined and fixed, the next parameter, the spherical correction, is examined. Since the whole visual system is an integration of many factors, there is an inter-relationship between all the parameters. If a test performed later in the routine affects a parameter formally fixed, the examiner may not be aware of this. If, for example, a prism is introduced, it may affect the spherical and cylinder correction formally consider as being fixed. When testing in series it is difficult to see these changes. By testing in parallel the whole aspect of the visual balance can be seen simultaneously.

The workshop will explain and demonstrate testing in parallel and the participants will be able to experience the methodology and practice on each other.

Presenter: Henry Green 

This course presents a practical, clinical approach to evaluating and treating the distance vision of visually impaired individuals and for prescribing bioptic telescopes. It teaches a clinical protocol for the assessment of an individual’s visual needs, clinical methods for determining appropriate patients, and for establishing a prognosis for likely prescription success of changes in refraction and with bioptic telescopes. Methods for fitting and training patients for using bioptics and practice management tips are also included. It is hoped that the attendee will leave with practical knowledge that they can apply with their next low vision patient.

Presenter: Langis Michaud 

Scleral contact lenses are becoming standard of care to restore vision on patients with irregular cornea, or to treat eye diseases. They can also be considered as a valid option to refit soft lens wearers complaining about discomfort or vision issues. This workshop will show you an easy way to prescribe, fit, and evaluate scleral lenses, with the use of smaller diameter scleral lenses (15-15.6 mm). Participants will be asked to fit lenses on each other and to evaluate lens behaviour. Are you ready to be part of the future in contact lenses?

Presenter: Dominique Meslin
Facilitator: Davor Mihaljević

The management of presbyopic patients requires a specific attention. In depth vision health screening is mandatory, refraction has to be carefully conducted for both distance and near and dispensing should be managed accurately.
This presentation will review the different steps of a today’s patient journey. A specific focus will be made on the latest techniques that practitioners can use for successfully managing their presbyopic patients, from screening to refraction to dispensing.
In the workshop participants will be invited to follow demonstrations as well as to practice. They will be offered a copy of the Essilor Academy “Practical Refraction” Ophthalmic Optics File as well as of the “Progressive Lenses Fitting Guide”.

Presenter:John Mc Gann
Facilitator: Rupal Lovell-Patel 

A proportion of patients encountered by optometrists and dispensing opticians in practice will report visual perceptual distortions (pattern glare) when viewing striped patterns. This may result in symptoms of “visual stress” in these individuals many of whom will also display reduced reading speeds.

We know too that undetected vision problems such as vergence and accommodative anomalies are common and individuals affected may present with symptoms similar to those with visual stress. It is therefore important to correctly identify those whose reading speed might be improved through the use of coloured overlays or specific lens tints.

This workshop aims to demonstrate how to investigate and manage individuals presenting with visual stress using Cerium Optical Intuitive Colorimeter, Wilkins Rate of Reading Test and Institute of Optometry Pattern Glare test.

Presenter: Katsoulos Konstatinos

Examination of the patient presenting with manifestations of neurological disease. Advanced examination of the pupils, ocular motility and gaze defects. Basic examination of the cranial nerves, and examination of the ptosis patient and the optic neuritis patient. Videos and photos of real patients will be presented and discussed.

Presenter: Paolo Tacconella

It is possible to enhance the efficacy and efficiency of the optometric measurements modifying the psychophysical characteristics of the targets used and the procedures applied.
For all the binocular testing it is crucial to use targets that show the presence of central suppression. The implementation of polarized targets to detect central suppression is highly recommended.
It would be helpful to consider two forms of relative accommodation or vergence: tonic and phasic, the first being the standard test of relative function and the second being the “facility” test.
Some of the probes used in optometry can be consider as typical performance testing and some other are of maximum performance. Understanding their differences is helpful to assign the right importance to the tests we use on a daily basis.

Presenter: Sebastian Marx
Facilitator: Wolfgang Sickenberger 

Dry eye is a common eye disease, which is characterized by various symptoms. Nowadays not only older people are suffering from dry eye as young people doing extensive work on displays during the days which leads to an increase of dry eyes in that population group as well. Although a multiplicity of dry eye tests are available, not every test can be performed. The workshop will demonstrate a quick dry eye screening which can be conducted before every refraction consisting of three short tests in order to evaluate if a more sophisticated screening needs to be done. Additionally a new time efficient workflow will be introduced using slit lamp and Keratograph 5M to finally identify the cause and develop a treatment plan. The intention of the workshop is that every attendee may conduct the new approach.

Presenter : Gustav Poeltner

What is the best contact lens solution for our client? Disposable soft – or individual soft lenses? RGP-with special fit? Will we find an moovement by soft lenses, if the back surface geometry is absolutly parallel, to the Cornea geometry and the Coreno scleral profile? Which parameter changing will have the higher effect of the fit, the change of the radius or the change of the diameter?

Questions over questions. In this interactive quiz-modul, participants should find a common answer of most of this questions. An exciting trip should be done absolutly – by you.

Presenter: Damjan Žunić 

The main purpose of this workshop is to introduce optometrist with exercises that can help professional athletes and patients undergoing physical therapy improve their sensorimotor skills. By implementing those exercises professional athletes can improve their performance and patients undergoing physical therapy can speed up their recovery and get back to everyday life.

Participants will be shown how optometrist can analyze, train and improve skills such as perception span, dynamic vision, multiple object tracking, eye hand coordination and other skills. They will also be shown how to analyze gathered information and how to create an improvement plan. We will be using the most advanced equipment available in combination with balance boards, tennis balls, Brock-String, Marsden ball and other. Participants will have the opportunity to use all of the mentioned equipment to test some of their own sensorimotor skills and see in which areas they have the most potential for improvement.

Presenter: Helmer Schweizer

Every business owner faces a lot of challenges and has a lot of concerns, when considering changes on how she / he run the business. The EUROMCONTACT loyalty simulator tool allows ‘playing’ with some of these changes, even in some extreme ways, before making a decision. It can then also be used to derive KPIs to track the progress versus set goals. This may give the individual more confidence in selecting the area of change, the magnitude and the goals of the envisioned change(s). This presentation will show how the tool works, hand out the link to the web based tool and encourage the attendees to actively use the tool.

Presenter:  Mellisa Vitek
Facilitator: Janice Scharre 

While most healthcare providers embrace the belief that evidence-based clinical decision-making leads to better patient outcomes, many, including optometrists, provide healthcare that lags behind the current scientific literature. Optometrists often have difficulty finding, appraising and/or applying current best evidence. Participants in this hands-on workshop will work in small groups. A specific patient scenario will be provided and each group will be asked to formulate and categorize an answerable clinical question. Groups will then search the literature and share with the large group their search experiences. A specific article will then be provided to each group and they will work through the critical appraisal of that article. Critical appraisal results will be shared with the large group for discussion. The small groups will then apply the results of that article to the patient scenario. Finally, the small groups will, once again, share their work with the large group for discussion.

Presenter: Andreas Berke
Facilitator: Gustav Pöltner

Comprehensive optometric examination includes screening of visual functions. Ocular motility, horizontal and vertikal sakkades, binocular function, pupil reaction and visual field are important aspects of vision. Easy to perform tests can reveal a number of crucial visual disorders. We demonstrate screening procedures that are simple, unexpensive and not time consuming.

This presentation will help practitioners and dispensing opticians handle the cases with the contact lens wearers. Practitioners who do not regularly fit contact lenses are often convinced that it is too complicated and too much time needed for a proper fit. It is true that according to a study by the University of Waterloo (Canada) in 2013, the discontinuation rate of contact lens wearers is between 26 and 40%. Not having the lenses fit, you also lost the other 60% of the others that are willing to wear contacts.

Through the practical solutions and tricks the lecture will help practitioners to demonstrate an understanding of the options, choices and management of the adaptation issues of contact lenses. Every practitioner has an individual that claims contact lens insertion is impossible or can not be handled. The intolerances, clumsy fingers and being afraid of touching the surface of the eyes, are often heard in the practice. Aa a practitioner you need to make it work, because the client decides to choose you because they think you are professional and trustworthy. Successful rate of contact lens wearing depends on various factors: motivation, effort put in the learning and adapting, hygiene, obedience and visual expectations. Discomfort and dryness are nowadays the initial reason for stopping or reducing the usage of contact lenses. Learning objectives of this lecture will try to improve the communication with contact lens patients from initial fitting onwards to ensure that they understand the benefits and limitations of different lens types so ensure compliance and retention of wearers. The consultation and the dialogue between the practitioner and patient has a few important goals:

• To establish if a candidate is suitable for CL correction
• To identify the optimal CL correction
• To discuss reasonable expectations of the visual performance
• To educate a patient about the safety and the care system
• To discuss the aftercare and the importance of the follow-ups

The prescription of progressive lenses requires a very acurate mesurement of certain parameters on wearers face. If f one of those parameters is taken incorectly, it can have a huge effect on adaptation time of a wearer. Therefore it is realy important to be able to tak ethose mesurements correctly and acuratley, even if more then one person is empoyed int he practice. This workshop will be focused on one or more ways of taking mesurements so everyone can be sure to take correct mesurement every time. First part of workshop will be theoretical and second one will be practical with people taking mesures themselves.

The presentation is about multifocal fittings and how to succeed by picking the ideal type of customer, distinguishing between presbyopia patients who are suitable and patients who are not very suitable for multifocal contact lenses. When comes to the fitting process a study conducted in Danish Contact Lens Institute demonstrates the importance of examining for the dominant eye (motoric/sensoric) and to apply the proper use of “flippers.” The presentation also touches on aspects of patient communication that may help securing a successful multifocal fitting.

The advantage of the Scheimpflug principle over conventional topography systems is the additional detection of the posterior surface of the cornea. This allows the investigator to detect early ectasias. Furthermore, scans of the entire anterior segment of the eye including anterior chamber and lens can be taken enabeling the examiner to screen for narrow angle glaucoma and cataract. Participants will practice Scheimpflug scans and learn how to look for ectasia by means of the Belin-Ambrósio module. Additionally, we will use the Fast Screening Report to detect changes in corneal topography, pachymetry and anterior chamber configuration.