Contacts with Conway
In November 2019, Contamac launched Contacts with Conway, a web series dedicated to speciality contact lenses, starring in-house professional Martin Conway. With over 35 years of experience, Martin Conway shares his knowledge and expertise of contact lens fitting, assessment and troubleshooting.
In the inaugural Contacts with Conway episode, Martin discussed the importance of using software and looking at fluorescein patterns to determine the correct fit with gas permeable contact lenses. The video also demonstrated insertion and removal techniques for both the patient and practitioner. Gathering 1.2K views since it’s release, the video has been watched across the globe.
Contacts with Conway was created as a platform to educate, support and share speciality contact lens knowledge within the practitioner community. To support the global audience, and in line with the nature of online viewing, all episodes have both English and Spanish subtitles. This is to enable access to as wide an audience possible.
Currently, there are 5 videos of Contacts with Conway available on YouTube, which have generated over 4K views collectively. Covering topics such as toric lens assessment, soft lens insertion and removal troubleshooting and scleral lens handling techniques, Contacts with Conway aims to educate and inform other practitioners around the world.
So far, approximately 20% of the total viewers watched the videos with Spanish subtitles, indicating strong interest from the Spanish speaking audience. To support the desire for educational resources from both the Spanish speaking audience and the Russian audience, efforts are underway to deliver videos with native voiceovers. This allows further accessibility for viewers.
The potential of collaboration through video is huge. In each video, the audience is invited to share their own tips and tricks for different situations. By sharing this content to a wider audience, the collective of practitioners can enhance their skills and knowledge to provide an alternative, and potentially more effective techniques, to deliver better results for their patients.
Contacts with Conway host, Martin Conway gives some insight into the success of the video series:
So far, has Contacts with Conway been what you expected?
The short answer is no! I’m not from this “Facetube” generation and so when it was suggested, I was not keen. I think that shows in the early videos, I began to relax as I became more comfortable with the format and realised that there was an audience for the snippets of information that they contain.
What do you think makes Contacts with Conway successful?
I think it’s because we don’t try to get too much information across in one go. I present conventional lectures for a living, and generally, they are in a 40 minute to 1-hour time slot. I normally need to include as much content as possible in order both to keep the audience awake and to meet Continuing Education criteria. With the Contacts with Conway videos, we pick a single piece of the puzzle and examine it in as uncomplicated a fashion as possible. This 5-minute format appears to fit with today’s audience, who are used to getting information in bite-sized chunks.
How do you select the topics to examine in more detail through Contacts with Conway?
I look at the type of things that are not covered in formal lectures and textbooks. Take the removal of soft lenses for wearers of false nails for example – that came from watching my wife remove hers. I simply passed that tip on to other patients over the years and now I can pass it on to a wider audience. Someone once said to me that fitting contact lenses is part science and part art. I think that the art is passed down from experienced fitters of one generation to the next, and that comes in the form of little tips and tricks that are picked up along the way; it is those that I hope to continue to provide in order to keep the art alive.
What are your thoughts on utilising video for educational purposes in the industry?
As I said earlier, I was a reluctant convert to this format. Having seen that there is a need. I think that this is a way that the skills that were in decline due to the dominance of moulded lenses in most markets can be passed on more effectively than on a one-to-one demonstration. It is something that can be accessed easily from anywhere.
Watch the videos here.