BABO Conference 2018
Former Stoke City defender Andy Wilkinson, who suffered a brain injury while playing football, took part in the conference to enable the 24 delegates to see how the behavioural optometry activities and testing procedures would work in real life.
For the first time BABO joined with the Association for Independent Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians (AIO) for its annual conference, emphasising the opportunities of behavioural optometry for helping independents to differentiate.
Explaining some of the benefits of the new partnership, BABO Chairman, John Stevenson, said: “It was great to join with the AIO and to share in an event of this size, especially as we have a number of common members.”
Optometrist Dr Geoff Heddle travelled from Indiana to talk to both conferences about sports vision. He is a sports vision consultant with the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and is also a member of the medical team of the NBA New York Knicks basketball team.
“Dr Heddle shared so much new information on the topic of sports vision and how to assess an athlete,” Mr Stevenson highlighted. “Our BABO delegates commented on how good it was to hear new information and to learn new procedures to use in practice immediately.”
BABO held a taster session at the AIO conference on behavioural optometry and Dr Heddle also gave a CET lecture on sports vision and the role vision plays in athletic performance.
Sponsors of the BABO conference included Eye Carrot, supplier of the Binovi Touch Saccadic Fixator, Vivid Vision, which demonstrated its virtual reality system used for the treatment of strabismus and amblyopia, optical equipment supplier Visus, plus Caledonian Optical, which sells speciality lenses including the SHAW lens used for aniseikonia.
A meeting on myopia control is now being planned by BABO for May and its next conference is in Bristol on 6 October 2019.
BABO also runs regular courses for those optometrists interested in finding out more about behavioural optometry and how to differentiate their practice. For more information, email admin@babo.co.uk or visit http://www.babo.co.uk.