AAOpt 2022: Topical pharmacology and clinical usefulness in practice

Brad Sutton, OD, FAAO, FORS, clinical professor at Indiana University School of Optometry, and service chief of the Indianapolis Eye Care Center, speaks with Optometry Times®' Kassi Jackson on highlights from his discussion titled, "Topical pharmacology rounds," which he presented during the 2022 American Academy of Optometry (AAOpt) annual meeting in San Diego.

Editor's note: This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Jackson:

Hi, everyone. I'm Kassi Jackson with Optometry Times, and I'm joined today by Dr. Brad Sutton, clinical professor at Indiana University School of Optometry and service chief of the Indianapolis Eye Care Center. He's here to share highlights from his discussion titled, "Topical pharmacology rounds," which he is presenting during the 2022 American Academy of Optometry meeting held this year in San Diego. Dr. Sutton, tell us about your talk.

Sutton:

So I appreciate you having me talk about a little bit. Yeah, the "topical pharmacology rounds" talk. The idea behind the talk is to cover all of the different categories of medicines that we use topically in eyecare. You know, so I talked about antibiotics and steroids and antivirals and the glaucoma medications and allergy drops, you know, all kinds of different things.

And the idea is, yeah, give a little bit of pharmacology...I know pharmacology is in the title, but it's a little bit of pharmacology and a lot of clinical usefulness. It's really more about how certain drugs are slightly different from each other and how drug X maybe a little bit better than drug Y in a given clinical situation, and really try to talk about nuances in using these drugs clinically. That's the idea.

Jackson:

And why is this important for optometrists to kind of discuss?

Sutton:

Well, obviously, we use topical drops all the time, and a lot of different conditions. And so our patients are better served when we understand differences between different drops, and how a given drop might be better for a certain patient's situation than another drop might be.

Jackson:

What is the one take home message you hope the audience walks away from your talk with?

Sutton:

Yeah, I mean, I hope people kind of come away from the talk, "Wow, I didn't really realize that, you know, this drug is particularly good for this condition, or this drug is more prone to do this side effect than some of its counterparts, that are in the same category."

I mean, my top my goal in this talk is always to give attendees information about these drops and these drugs that can help them better suit them to the individual patient's needs when those patients are in their chairs.