Experts Recount What Aspects of SECO Will Be Vital to Their Future Practice

Optometrists across the country gathered at the Southeastern Educational Congress of Optometry (SECO) 2025 meeting held from February 27 to March 2, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia, to learn about ongoing research in optometry. Some of the attendees and experts spoke with The American Journal of Managed Care^® about what they hope to take from SECO and use in their own practice.

These transcript were lightly edited for clarity; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

How do you see the sessions at SECO affecting your work or patient care?

Nate Lighthizer, OD, FAAO: We learn all the time. I learned today putting on this workshop that we get this information, we gather this information, we learn from the exhibit hall and from the workshops and from the research, the posters, and we start to apply it to patient care on Monday. That's what continuing education is all about. We're lifelong learners. We take a lot from SECO and it is immediately applied in the short term this week, and then in the long term as well, to patient care.

Mile Brujic, OD, FAAO: SECO is an interesting conference, and it's one of these conferences that I always feel like you're getting the kind of the cutting-edge stuff that's coming to market. Whenever I go to SECO, I usually attend in anticipation to find out what's new, what's the latest, what's the greatest. There is some great research that's being presented—there's some awesome classes—and you're hearing from the leaders in in the world on this. Very excited to be here.

Brianna Rhue, OD, FAAO: I always come to one of these conferences wanting to take 1 or 2 [or] 3 nuggets back. In the dry eye space, obviously that's exploding. What more can we do? The myopia space is very, very research based. How can we use evidence-based medicine that's here now to better our patients?

I. Benjamin Gaddie, OD, FAAO: SECO is one of our hallmark events in optometry. I've been going to this meeting since 1994, and my dad before me came to this meeting for the last 50 years. SECO means a lot for my state association, for the profession of optometry, for advocacy, and [the SECO] crew put together one of the best continuing education programs in the industry. Always innovative, always new. Never recycled courses. [I] always take something home for my practice.