Millennial doctors are a new type of medical professional. They understand technology. In this revealing interview, Alaskan Optometrist, Dr. Patrick Campaign, clarifies technology and the connection between gaming and eye care.
Benjamin Briggs: Good afternoon and welcome to the show. This is Benjamin Briggs with Alaska business journal, and today we have with us, Mr. Patrick Campaign, mobile optometrist and co-founder of Senshi Con Anime Convention.
Today we are going to be talking about his practice some medical approaches and his vision for the future of Optometry. So, without further ado, Welcome to the show, Dr. Campaign.
Patrick Campaign: Thank you so much Mr. Briggs. It is a pleasure being here.
Benjamin Briggs: How long have you been in Alaska?
Patrick Campaign: I was born and raised in Alaska.
Benjamin Briggs: Give us some history of you, your qualifications and any other ventures that you are involved with.
Patrick Campaign: Growing up here in town I lived right beside Kincaid Park and graduated from Dimond High School. After that, I did my graduate over at University of Alaska. I graduated with a bachelors degree in Vision Science. I knew that I wanted to get into eye care for most of my life. I then went to Portland Oregon down to Pacific University where I completed my Doctorate in optometry and eye care in general. I missed Alaska and moved back.
Benjamin Briggs: What is Optometry?
Patrick Campaign: Optometry is the study and health care of eyes. Everyone always conveys eye care as how well you see or how clear something is. And thats when when you go to an eye doctor for glasses but that is only part of the equation. How nice does a car look versus how well does is run are two completely different things. Actually 70 percent of eye diseases have no pain or visual signs until its too late. It’s better to be proactive before there is a problem.
Benjamin Briggs: What would you say is the most important element of Optometry?
Patrick Campaign: The most important element of optometry is to be able to educate the public on what eye care is all about. A lot of people are reactive. That means when there is a problem that’s when people go to get their eyes fixed.
Benjamin Briggs: What is Sensi Con Anime Convention?
Patrick Campaign: Sensi Con is the original anime convention in Alaska. I am actually a co-founder. It was originally started in 2005. A group of high school clubs gathered to see if there was any interest in this fan group. It turns out that we had people coming out from Soldotna and Wasilla. We had people travelling from quite a bit away to check out this new invention because it was the first of its kind.
Benjamin Briggs: I understand that you have a great understanding of a trending tech called smart glasses. Tell us something about them.
Patrick Campaign: Smart glasses, like smart phones are still in their infancy. There is so much potential with it that it’s almost overwhelming on what people can do with them. Fifteen years ago if you tried to explain what a smart phone could do, would be very overwhelming. Today, you use them for GPS, mapping, and calls. Smart glasses are the next step up. They do everything that a phone does without having to pull out your phone, without even having to look away from someone’s eyes and conversation. It makes things more efficient, safer, and more secure.
Benjamin Briggs: Safe and more secure. Tell the audience and readers about the functionality of smart glasses. You said that it can replace the phone, but give us some insight on how you would use it. Let’s say you’re jogging or exercising, and you get a text; but you can’t hear notification.
Patrick Campaign: Sure! That was a really great example. Same thing is true if you’re cycling. There are a lot of benefits for athletes. Smart glasses, they come out in so many different forms. You can have a little info screen, or what’s called a heads-up display for those video gamers. You can have it show up off the side of your vision; you can have it in your middle vision.
For example, let’s say you’re on a plane, and you need to type up a report. They don’t give you very much room for laptops anymore in order to do anything. Well, you can bring your Bluetooth keyboard, turn it on, and hook it up to your “Smart glasses”. You can use that as a screen. It looks almost like it’s an 8 foot screen about 5 or 6 yards away. You can type there without taking up any extra foot traffic space. Or, if you are doing pottery and you get a phone call or a text, well, your hands are dirty; you don’t want to pick up your phone. You can just look off to the side of your screen and say, “Hey, it’s Aunt Martha wanting to call. Well, I’ll call her back later”.
Another really big one attributing to healthcare is 3D gaming, 3D vision, and education. For instance, during surgery, it’s really difficult for veteran doctors to teach interns proper procedures when you have either a narrow place to do it at or a very tight window to work through. There is one procedure in eye care where the only way I can teach someone else is if they are lying on the floor about 4 feet away from a half inch mirror that they are trying to see while I’m doing my procedure.
That’s the only way, that’s how we had to learn in college. With this, I can just turn on the video on my smart glasses, they can now actually see what I’m doing and they can see the actual video of what I am accomplishing. And, turn on the microphone, I can then talk through how I am doing it so then it becomes a tutorial.
