LAS VEGAS—The CooperVision Specialty Eyecare Division will celebrate its first anniversary with a slate of educational and information opportunities for eyecare professionals at the 2019 Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS), which is being held at the Tropicana Las Vegas this week. The company is hosting multiple breakout sessions designed to benefit practitioners, staff and the growing number of patients wearing specialty contact lenses. These include: What We Don’t Know About Myopia by Maria Liu, OD, PhD, MPH, MBA, FAAO, the founder and chief of the Myopia Control Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley on Friday, Jan. 25, from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. PT in Cohiba 11. Paragon Vision Sciences Update, led by Rich Jeffries, its president, on Saturday, Jan. 26, from 7:00 – 7:30 a.m. PT in Cohiba 7. Paragon CRT Dual Axis Overview by Leah Johnson, OD, FAAO, director of Clinical Services, on Saturday, Jan. 26 from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. PT in Cohiba 7. Blanchard Contact Lenses: Total Control of Scleral Lens Design & Fit for Ultimate Vision Performance and Comfort with Onefit MED, by Kriti Bhagat, OD, FAAO and Thomas P. Arnold, OD, FSLS, on Saturday, Jan. 26 from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.In addition, CooperVision will unveil its practitioner-focused Learning Lounge on the exhibit floor, as well as a newly designed Specialty EyeCare Division customer booth.

Las Vegas also is the site of CooperVision’s annual educators meeting in conjunction with GSLS, bringing together contact lens professors from nearly two dozen schools and colleges of optometry across North America. The organization’s Professional and Academic Affairs team will share updates regarding its multiple hands-on collegiate optometric programs for students and faculty.

In its announcement, the company said its “significant presence at GSLS comes on the heels of [the] acquisition of Blanchard Contact Lenses earlier this month, as well as [the] Paragon Vision Sciences unit announcing professional staff expansion in five U.S. regions, citing rising practitioner demand for myopia education and support.”

The GSLS event brings together the world’s foremost clinicians, researchers, educators and developers of specialty contact lenses, Juan Carlos Aragón, OD, president of CooperVision’s Specialty EyeCare Division, said in the announcement. “We’re privileged to partner with many of them to successfully manage a range of ocular conditions using our innovative products, and look forward to deepening and extending these relationships over the next several days,” he added.

Sessions scheduled for the CooperVision Learning Lounge area include:

Friday, Jan. 25
• 12:30 – 1:15 pm: Communicating Applicable Benefits in Families with Children in OrthoK and Learning Top 10 Staff Training Tips for Creating a Myopia Management Practice, Tara O'Grady, ALLDocs

• 1:15 - 2:00 pm: Succeeding with Multifocals, Mark Andre

• 5:00 – 6:00 pm: Strategies for Effective OrthoK Management in Practice, Dr. Sheila Morrison

• 6:00 – 7:00 pm: Practice Management Resources, Paragon Practice Management Consultants Jon Hudson & Angela Carter

Saturday, Jan. 26
• 12:30 – 1:15 pm: Enhance Your Treatment Options with CRT Dual Axis, Dr. Leah Johnson & Paragon Technical Consultant Barbara Ehlers

• 1:15 – 2:00 pm: Using a Chair Time Calculator to Determine Your Fees, Paragon Practice Management Consultants Jon Hudson & Angela Carter