On 16th May 2021 Sunday the group met on a virtual platform for their first ever conference. It was organized by a team of enthusiastic young optometrists guided by Mr Nilesh Thite. The team included Puneet, Zeba Naz, Sakina Mussaji, Payal Sangani and Anjali Ahuja.
The conference started with a warm welcome by Mr. Nilesh Thite. It was his initiative to bring the youth together, give them direction and make a difference to them as well as society. Having said that, a throwback to the nostalgic journey of OSP was shown by Zeba Naz: where it started, what the team achieved, participation in several events and contributions to several organizations.
The conference took up pace immediately with a role play describing how one should counsel a myopic child, different methods of myopia control were discussed by Vidhi Gupta who conducted the role play. Later, educative insights were given by Mrs Lakshmi Shinde. It surely was a fun way to learn.
Keeping with the pace, a healthy debate on the topic “Optometric Instruments: Manual Vs Automated” took place. Several points were brought forward by the participants, these included: manual instruments are easily portable and would surely be precise as it requires expertise to interpret the results. On the other hand, it was said that automated instruments are being made portable as well, making it easier to work with larger number of patients and are accurate as well. It was announced that the winner of the debate would be declared at the end by the audience poll.
Polls were also conducted at regular intervals to keep the audience interacting. They were asked when they joined the group, what they are currently pursuing and what they mean to do for the group. An interesting response was shared, showing how excited the group was for the conference.
Optometry is not always work, but all play and no work would make us a mere toy. Keeping that in mind, the conference had three amazing intellectual sessions on different points. The first one was conducted by Mrs. Lakshmi Shinde, on the Government bill on “Allied and Health Care Bill: How it affects us?” She explained what the bill included and what work has yet to be done in very simple words, making it very easy to understand. The bill concentrated more on the education sector and how proper registration was required for a standardized education system for all Health and Allied Health systems to run smoothly.
An interesting open quiz took place, the audience were absorbed in many optometry related questions and it would be appropriate to say that the roots were held onto strong; the answers swamped the chat box in a matter of seconds. The conference moved forward to the next awaited lecture by Mrs. Anitha Arvind on how to present a clinical case. She summarized the entire concept in one acronym- SOAPE; it explains everything and is easy to remember. She mentioned that once everything flows in the desired manner, solving a clinical case is as easy as reciting the alphabet.
Red Eye is a common problem seen anywhere across the globe, it is important for an optometrist to know what questions to ask to make a fair diagnosis. To understand the same, a role play by Siddharth was next.
Being good in our profession makes us well known, but there is hidden talent amongst us. Abhishek Shakya and Sajal Srivastava presented catchy poems in their own unique way. To top it up, the talent revealed by Jasmin Modi depicted the ‘behind the scenes’ version of an optometry student in form of a video.
In continuation, a second quiz took place and the response once again filled in within seconds. The audience enjoyed responding to the questions and desired more.
Two really interesting debates took place back-to-back. The two topics were:
● Telehealth: Boom or Doom to Optometry
● Conventional Optical Set Up Vs Specialty Clinic Set up
At the end of these heated debates, a poll took place to decide the winners of the debate.
Last but not least, the lecture most looked forward to, was conducted on the topic “Off-Beat Career Options.” Mr. Nilesh Thite, acknowledging the work of other optometrists, motivated every student in the audience to believe that the path forward is colorful and full of options.
To finish it off, the team behind it all was given a chance to share their experiences. Finally polls were taken to understand if such events should take place in the future.
A selfie with the audience is the signature of Mr. Nilesh Thite, which wasn’t missed out; every student was asked to turn on their cameras and wave at the camera, and screenshots were taken. The online selfie!
