SUCCESS FOR THE FIRST IRSOO CONFERENCE

The subject was "Optometric research and its clinical relevance" The comments in the evaluation questionnaires were explicit and praised aspects that characterized the first IRSOO conference: subjects that were totally relevant in daily clinical practice; the sincerity and competence demonstrated by the speakers; punctuality; the possibility to take notes in the folder of conference documents; meetings among professionals and the debate with the audience.   Sponsored by Alcon, CSO, Esavision, Essilor, Hoya and Zeiss, the subject of the conference on October 6 was: "Optometric research and its clinical relevance", i.e. what are the consequences of optometric research for daily clinical practice. The day was divided into four sessions, each of which ended with a moderated round table held by professionals on the subject of the session, but open to comments by the participants. The subjects handled stimulated interest and active participation: from the role of fixation disparity in the comfort of optical correction to the importance of reading measurement in optometry; from patient management to dry eye problems or the inclusion of myopia progression control in daily life. The formula adopted for conference documents was highly appreciated: a book containing the abstracts of talks was organized in such a way that notes could be taken in spaces provided next to the texts: a work tool that participants used throughout the conference and which can be transformed at a later stage into a manual for studying and investigating the subjects handled.   "The innovative aspect that I would most like to underscore", said IRSOO director Alessandro Fossetti, "is the fact that perhaps for the first time in Italy a conference has been based essentially on experimental work carried out on site - in this case at IRSOO - rather than on reporting the results of work carried out in other parts of the world. Finally a conference that did not discuss the usual things that have been said over and over again at one conference or another; at last, young people who have just (or are about to) become optometrists presented their original experiments that were commented on and discussed by their professors and the professional speakers and experts who are well known in our sector. All this", Fossetti continued, "was made possible because optometric research is at last being carried out also in Italy, not only at IRSOO, of course, but also in university courses where research is institutional. Also presented at the IRSOO conference was work by Roma Tre University". Research and quality professional training are the two limbs on which it is hoped that Italian optometry will be able, at last, to take rapid strides.