I recently spent a beautiful North Carolina Saturday in front of my computer attending a Zoom Webinar. By now, most of us are familiar or have used the Zoom video conferencing platform. I was one of several hundred North Carolina Doctors of Optometry attending the North Carolina Optometric Society (NCOS) Virtual Spring Congress Webinar. This is usually one of the major statewide meetings of the NCOS to conduct business, elect new officers, and provide continuing education courses. The purpose for many including me is to attend the continuing education (CE) courses to receive the necessary hours required to stay current and for license renewal in North Carolina. So, conducting this very important meeting using virtual video conferencing was a new world.

The virtual webinar’s format required that I possess some knowledge of computer use, logging in and out of scheduled courses, use of webinar IDs, passwords, etc. For some of us Baby Boomers with no formal computer skills this can be stressful at times. Anyway, the webinar was well planned and except for some occasional audio glitches went well. The speakers were excellent and looked well-dressed, at least from the waist up since that is all we saw. The power point presentations were easy to follow and provided relevant and current clinical information. There was even an option to click on and raise your hand with a question. Just like being there in person… well, not really. In an actual meeting you can always jab the person seated at your side and joke about the stupid questions others ask.

The world and life are very different these days. Social distancing has certainly changed the things we have taken for granted in the past. I miss seeing and sitting next to my colleagues and friends at these meeting, asking questions of the speakers in person to put them on the spot, and coming away feeling reenergized and ready to return to my practice to put to use my newly gained knowledge. Doctors are always dedicated to continuing education and learning to provide the highest level of care to our patients. Virtual video webinars may be the reality of the present, but I miss the normalcy of the past.

Rick L. Hartman, OD, FAAO