After fantastic reviews of last year's event, we are returning to the Renaissance Asheville this November for Fall Congress! Don’t miss this chance to mingle with your fellow ODs, gain valuable continuing education, and enjoy the beauty of the NC mountains while staying within walking distance of all that downtown Asheville has to offer. Registration and room block are now open, so make plans now to join us back in downtown Asheville!

REGISTER NOW

Dates: Friday, November 3 - Sunday, November 5, 2023

Location: Renaissance Downtown Hotel, Asheville, NC

Continuing Education: Earn 16 hours of COPE Approved/NC Certified Credit

Cost:

*Students must sign up for volunteer shifts of CE scanning/monitoring and attend the Student Seminar, as well as all Partner meals, the Friday evening reception, and the Saturday evening Young OD event in order to receive free registration! More info will be provided closer to the event.

Note: New Licensees (those who obtained their NC license in 2023) have the opportunity to receive FREE Fall Congress registration if they attend the New Licensee Seminar and all partner meals and NCOS events while on site! Check out the New Licensee Seminar page for all of the details. Please reach out to [email protected] to obtain your discount code for free registration. 

Room Block/Resort Perks: For your convenience we have secured a room block for our attendees at the discounted rate of $284/night. The reservation link will be provided in your registration confirmation email.

Located in the heart of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, the Renaissance Downtown Asheville offers sweeping mountain views, while the location allows you to walk to all the restaurants and breweries that downtown has to offer. The hotel's front desk navigators will help you find the best activities and experiences around town. An onsite restaurant and bar, indoor junior olympic pool and whirlpool, and a gorgeous patio for evening cocktails are available for those nights you don't wish to venture out. 

Highlights:

• Partners Exhibit Hall spotlighting our top supporting partners
• New Licensee Seminar for 2023 NC new licensees 
• Student Seminar for NCOS student or resident members 
• CPR certification breakout (additional costs apply)
• Partner meal functions
  
• Friday evening Advancing Optometry reception 
• Saturday evening Young OD event sponsored by VSP
  
• NC Board of Optometry Special Election for 2024 Appointment 
• Great location right in the heart of downtown Asheville
• And so much more!
  

Partner Meals:

Partner Luncheon Friday, November 3rd, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Top of the Plaza Hosted By:

Agenda:

Friday, November 3

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Herpetic Eye Disease Diagnosis and Management, COPE Pending, Jason Duncan, OD, FAAO (2 hours)
This course provides an in-depth discussion of the herpes family of viruses and their ophthalmic manifestations. Diagnostic and management strategies are thoroughly addressed and include actual patient care examples. Evidence based medicine and empirical protocols are reviewed. The course participant will learn to distinguish among the various herpetic viruses that may affect the eye and adnexa as well as the respective management.

10:15 AM - 12:15 PM: New Technologies in Eye Care, COPE Pending, James Thimons, OD, FAAO (2 hours)
This course will review the latest technologies in eye care and how they impact clinical practice. Special emphasis will be placed on how to integrate them into the Primary Medical practice

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM: Ocular Rosacea, COPE Pending, Jason Duncan, OD, FAAO (1 hour)
Ocular rosacea is a widely overlooked and undiagnosed ophthalmic condition. This course examines the etiology, diagnosis, and management of rosacea, in particular, ocular rosacea.

3:15 PM - 4:15 PM: Alphabet Soup for the Anterior Segment: CIN, SAM, PEM, PAM, COPE Pending, Jason Duncan, OD, FAAO (1 hour)
Optometric physicians frequently are confronted with various pigmentations of the conjunctiva. This course will identify the various conjunctival pigmentations, separating the benign from the malignant. Time will also be dedicated to understanding differentials of each conjunctival pigmentation as well as appropriate management strategies. Can you just watch it? Or, is it time to get a biopsy? Those answers and more in, Alphabet Soup for the Anterior Segment: CIN, SAM, PEM, PAM!

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM: Advancing Optometry Reception (open to NC-licensed ODs)
Details Forthcoming!


Saturday, November 4

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Glaucoma Update, COPE 84940-GL, James Thimons, OD, FAAO (2 hours)
An in depth review of the latest developments in pharmaceutical therapy, new technologies and and therapeutic interventions.

10:15 AM - 12:15 PM:  Advances in Anterior Segment Medical & Surgical Therapy, COPE 85515-TD, James Thimons, OD, FAAO (2 hours)
This course will review and discuss the latest advances in Anterior Segment therapy available to address the therapuetic needs of patients and clinicians

10:15 AM - 12:15 PM Breakout Session: CPR Basic Life Support for the Healthcare Provider (add-on course)
Need to renew your CPR certification this year? Zack Kemp of Weaverville Wellness is back with a 2-hour optional course on Saturday morning! Cost is $125/person and includes certification, digital handbook, supplies for practicals and a CPR mask for each individual. 
*Register for this add-on course on the main Fall Congress registration form. 

2:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Testing in Glaucoma: Pearls and Pitfalls, COPE Pending, Sanjay Asrani, MD (2 hours)
Course description coming soon!

4:00 PM - 4:15 PM: North Carolina State Board of Examiners in Optometry Special Election (open to NC-licensed optometrists residing in North Carolina)
The North Carolina Optometric Society will be holding a special election for the 2024 NC Board of Optometry appointment. This special election is the result of the bylaws amendments that were passed at the North Carolina Optometric Society’s business meeting in June that moves the annual NC Board of Optometry election from Spring Congress to Fall Congress.

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM: Young OD Event
Join us Saturday night for a mixer sponsored by our gold partner, VSP. Young ODs (10 years of practice or less), New Licensees and Students are invited. Details forthcoming!


Sunday, November 5

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Scleral Lenses: From Starting a Great Fit to Advanced Troubleshooting, COPE Pending, Ariel Cerenzie, OD, FAAO (2 hours)

10:15 AM - 12:15 PM: Myopia Management, COPE Pending, Ariel Cerenzie, OD, FAAO (2 hours)

Speakers:


Sanjay Asrani, MD
Cary, NC

Sanjay Asrani, MD, specializes in glaucoma diagnosis and treatment and cataract surgery. He is highly skilled in all forms of cataract and glaucoma surgery including tube implant, laser and filtering surgery. He is board certi­fied, fellowship trained, and has been honored among “America’s Top Ophthalmologists” and “Best Doctors in America”.

Asrani is a dedicated researcher receiving support from Research to Prevent Blindness, private foundations, and philanthropy. His major research interests include the development of new surgical implants for glaucoma, and the development and utilization of new technology for the early detection of glaucoma.

Ariel Cerenzie, OD, FAAO, FSLS
Charlotte, NC

Dr. Ariel Cerenzie is a West Texas native that fell in love with North Carolina and decided to make it home. She received her Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M University & her Doctor of Optometry from the University of Houston College of Optometry. She then completed a cornea and contact lens residency at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

To further her training, Dr. Cerenzie earned fellowships in the American Academy of Optometry (FAAO) and the Scleral Lens Education Society (FSLS). She is a member of the American Academy of Orthokeratology and Myopia Control and the National Keratoconus Foundation. She frequently publishes and lectures on myopia management and specialty contact lenses to doctors across the country.

Jason Duncan, OD, FAAO
Memphis, TN

Dr. Jason Duncan provides patient care in Adult Primary Care and Advance Care of Ocular Disease Services in The Eye Center at Southern College of Optometry. His clinical interests include ocular inflammatory disease, dry eyes/eyelid disease and primary care optometry. Dr. Duncan currently serves as Chair of the Faculty, the Faculty Affairs Committee, and the Seeing Green Initiative. An Associate Professor at SCO, he teaches classes in Anterior Segment Disease and Management, Posterior Segment Disease and Management, and a Common Optometric Procedures Seminar.

Dr. Duncan provides continuing education lectures and workshops, frequently lecturing in Nashville, Memphis, and Gatlinburg. Dr. Duncan’s hobbies include guitar, tennis, and landscaping. He is the Chair of the Membership Committee for the Central Garden’s Neighborhood Association and Assistant to the Editor for the CGA Newsletter. Dr. Duncan was in private practice in the Memphis area through 2008 and continues to see his patients at SCO.

J. James Thimons, OD, FAAO
Meridien, CT

Dr. James Thimons is a 1978 graduate of Ohio State University College of Optometry. He completed his hospital residency at the Chillicothe, VA Medical Center in 1979 and then served as Chief, Optometry Service until 1985. He then accepted the position of Center Director at Omni Eye Services, Fairfax, Virginia, and served in that role until 1989 when he became Chairman, Department of Clinical Sciences at the State University of New York.

While at SUNY he developed The Glaucoma Institute, a clinical research center, and served as its first Director. In 1998, he accepted the position of Executive Director of TLC and served in that role until 2002 when he co-founded Ophthalmic Consultants of Connecticut, a multidisciplinary referral practice providing secondary and tertiary level care.

Dr. Thimons has received numerous awards for his service to the profession and has over 200 publications in Glaucoma, Dry Eye, Cornea and External Disease, as well as Refractive Surgery and New Technologies. He is a nationally and internationally acclaimed Speaker and Educator and an acknowledged leader in ophthalmic clinical education. He serves in professorial appointments at several universities in the US and has been a clinical investigator in over 20 NIH, NEI and Post Release Clinical Trials. In 1999 he was awarded Optometry’s Top Educator and was selected as one of the Top Ten Clinicians of the decade. In 2002 he founded the National Glaucoma Society, a NFP with Executive offices in Andover, Massachusetts, that provides educational and clinical development services to primary care clinicians worldwide in the area of glaucoma management. In 2005 he was inducted into the Optometry Hall of Fame and has recently served as President, Connecticut Association of Optometrists. Dr. Thimons was selected as the Top Eye Doctor in Fairfield County in 2013 and was named on Newsweek’s America’s Best Eye Doctors 2022 list.

Meeting and Event Policies: click here

For questions contact Christy Santacana, Meetings Coordinator, at (919) 977-6964 or [email protected].