OSCELLE

After being recognised as Dispensing Optician of the Year, I met with Martyn Howlett, senior dispensing optician and dispensing team lead at SeeAbility. For the past nine years, his team has worked to provide students with learning disabilities across London with essential eyecare. We discuss his journey into eye care, how he developed techniques for modified dispensing, and the impact of being guided by the principle that no child is too disabled to receive an eye test.

Did you know the United States government has built a fully virtual, 50,000‑square‑foot facility containing 12 laboratories and more than 100 pieces of lab equipment? Join me as I speak with the head of the CDC’s Division of Laboratory Systems Virtual Reality Training Team to explore how VR can bridge the gap between clinical lab theory and real‑world practice, enhance lab education, and inspire the next generation of laboratory professionals.

Can a single image change the entire trajectory of diagnosing and treating complex retinal pathologies? In this article — which I ghost‑wrote following the Zeiss Professional Education–sponsored Ophthalmic Medical Education Summit — six eyecare experts come together to share a series of intriguing case studies, each demonstrating how advanced diagnostics can help practitioners identify key retinal biomarkers and ultimately illuminate the underlying conditions.

Often an unsung hero, the laboratory freezer is essential to the clinical lab's everyday functioning. But being such a staple, lab leaders must carefully plan how they build, maintain, and expand their cold‑storage fleets. From procurement to optimization — and the communication strategies needed throughout, this Lab Manager piece brings together global experts to outline what it takes to keep freezers, and the labs that rely on them, running smoothly.