COLLAB CORNER: The Latest and Greatest in Ocular Treatments and Technologies

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Tarsus Pharmaceuticals Incorporated applies proven science and new technology to revolutionize treatment for patients across several therapeutic categories, starting with eye care. Their lead product, Xdemy, Lodolanar Ophthalmic Solution, 0.25%, is FDA approved in the United States for the treatment of Demodex blepharitis. Learn more at tarsusrx.com.

**Marc Bloomenstein** (0:31)
Hey everybody, welcome back to Collaborative Corner, the podcast. Have you missed me? Well, here I am. You can go back and listen to old episodes. That's what I would suggest. As I've had a little time off, I've thought about practicing, seeing patients, and just realizing one of the things that I love about our profession is that things are constantly changing. And even though I don't know everything, I know that I have colleagues that do. And so that cooperative management, the idea of doing interventional care, interventional management, looking at new devices and treatments is always amazing. And so in this podcast, I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Brooke Messer. And Brooke is a really, really brilliant young optometrist that works in Vance Thompson Vision up in West Fargo, North Dakota. She dropped some clinical pearls, tried to challenge her a little bit.
And I think you'll enjoy the conversation. So this is a podcast with me and Dr. Messer.
Hey, Collabative Corner. Here we are with Dr. Brooke Messer. Brooke, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you practice?

**Brooke Messer** (1:41)
Hi, everyone. I practice in West Fargo, North Dakota at Vance Thompson Vision.
I've been there for just over six years. Prior to that, I was in private practice for almost 10 years in a specialty contact lens clinic. And now I'm doing all sorts of things, collaborating with my ophthalmologist and having a great time doing it.

**Marc Bloomenstein** (2:00)
That's awesome. So you've had quite a storied career though. I mean, going from a private practice, so you had to deal with the business and having to actually eat what you kill and seeking patients, to now working with a really esteemed and just world renowned clinic. Vance Thompson's always on the cutting edge of everything. And so for me, talking about interventional treatment. And that seems to me, I work in a cataract and refractive surgery center. It's all I've done my whole career. And it's always been the notion that people come to those centers because A, they feel they're getting a more thorough exam, but B, there's this impression that they're getting cutting edge.
So tell me a little bit about, I know you do certain things over there, and I want to tease it out of you, but just from an interventional standpoint, starting quite simple cataract surgery or things that you guys are doing over there at Vance Thompson, what's kind of exciting?

**Brooke Messer** (3:04)
Yeah. So the reason I joined Vance Thompson and things that still excite me is the ability to continue to expand. Like you're never really set in the way that we do any one thing. With interventional glaucoma, for example, like MIGS devices just continue to roll out, and just when you think you get your algorithm with where you like each one, something new comes and makes a splash. So I just really like being kind of on just ready to take on whatever's new all the time, and it's happening in keratoconus, it's happening in glaucoma, corneal transplants.
You name it, and that's what I really like about being at Vance Thompson, and when we talk about the collaborative care again, we're always looking to provide the latest in research too, which is super exciting being at Vance Thompson, because we have kind of an insight into what's coming down the pipeline for, whether it's fuchs dystrophy, keratoconus, glaucoma, refractive surgery, refractive cataract, that it's just a great place to be when there's just always new things coming down the pipeline. And we're grateful at VTV that we often get an opportunity to use those things early so that we can share our experience with others.

**Marc Bloomenstein** (4:14)
Okay, well, you've got a couple of people that are listening.
I never underestimate my audience. Give me just an overview, real quick, snapshot, 20 second, fast. What does, you tell me, first and foremost, if somebody's coming in and they've got, they're on one drop for glaucoma, what are you thinking right now about what you guys are going to be doing as far as mix? Or am I making this too simple?

**Brooke Messer** (4:41)
Well, if they're on one drop and they have glaucoma, it depends on their age. I'm going to talk to them about...

**Marc Bloomenstein** (4:46)
Oh no, I'm sorry, cataracts. They have cataracts. They have cataracts.