SECO Keynote to Focus on Novel Technologies for Eye Conditions

Julie Rodman, OD, MS, FAAO, clinic chief at Nova Southeastern University College of Optometry, discussed her planned keynote address at the Southeastern Educational Congress of Optometry (SECO) 2025 meeting ahead of its start on February 27, 2025.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

Can you preview your keynote session at SECO 2025?

There's actually 4 of us presenting, so I will talk more about my piece, just because I'm not 100% sure what everybody's doing. I have 2 sections. The first section is going to be talking about some advancements in the detection of age-related macular degeneration [AMD], so the use of home monitoring devices, artificial intelligence, [and] some advances in genetic therapy, something called optogenetics, which is a brand new type of gene therapy that we're super excited about.

[I'm also going to] talk about photobiomodulation, which is a new way of using light therapy to help patients with dry AMD. That's going to be a big, big portion of it. I'm going to talk even a little bit about a dry eye therapy, which is going off my comfort list. It's called Lacrifill [Nordic Pharma], which is a canalicular gel that is brand new and has a lot of promise. Basically, [in] this keynote session, we're going to be introducing some new and innovative technologies for a bunch of different diseases, but I'm going to focus primarily on the back of the eye.

What are you most looking forward to at SECO?

The only other thing is, I'm doing a poster segment workshop tomorrow that we're going to give the opportunity for whoever comes to have some hands-on experience with some great devices. I hope this comes out before the conference starts. I don't know if it will. Some great information about actually playing with stuff instead of just learning about it. Hopefully we'll get some attendance there, too.