Report on NKR Veterinary Specialists’ CPD Meeting 24 June 2010.

"Brilliant Talk!" ~ Kimberley Orth, Heene Road Vets

Ophthalmic Examination for the Advanced General Practitioner

Dr R F Sanchez DVM, DipECVO, MRCVS

When Dr Rick Sanchez speaks on ophthalmology, you know you are in for an evening of quality CPD and that fact was reflected in the record number of registrants for this meeting. As always, hampered by the last minute demands of general practice, not everyone managed to get there. Nevertheless, an audience of over fifty practitioners was treated to a comprehensive review of the ophthalmic diagnostic tools available in the consulting room and how to use them to best effect.

Beginning with anatomical knowledge and straightforward observation, Dr Sanchez led his audience down a logical path of clinical ophthalmic examination, illustrated along the way with numerous high definition images and videos of diagnostic techniques and differential disease conditions.

For all of us there is stuff we feel we ought to know but don’t really have a handle on. What do all the numbers on an ophthalmoscope mean; and the various settings? How do you do a Schirmer tear test properly? What is the difference between posterior chamber and posterior segment? Rick has that rare talent for explaining what he might reasonably feel we should already know, with infinite tact and clarity. Memorable tips, such as colour coding disease processes and a technique for pinpointing the exact position of a lesion in the eye, liberally flavoured his talk. It left you feeling relieved, informed and impatient to see the next sore eye that walks through the consulting room door, so you can apply your new or reaffirmed knowledge.

After two hours, even at the end of a long working day, the audience was still hanging on his every word and Rick’s enthusiasm for his subject, clearly dear to his heart, was undiminished. A number of people volunteered that they had learned more in this one evening than in their whole university experience.

I think nearly everyone present learned not just what they can do better in their own surgeries but, because of a better understanding of the level of a specialist’s expertise, be more alert to the sorts of cases that are best referred; especially to one of Rick’s calibre.