An In-Depth Look at the New ePub Sanet Seminar Series and Commentary

I suspect that most of you are aware of the Sanet Seminar Series given over the course of five weekends yearly in San Diego. About five years ago, the course was professionally filmed and edited by Joe Lia, executive producer of Survivor. It is fair to say that Optometry has never had an educational course of this nature that was filmed in a way that captures not only the essence of what was presented, but does it in way that in some respects is even better than being present at the live course. That is because of the numerous camera angle shoots and the familiarity of the producer with what is being presented.

I was so impressed with the quality of the video and its uniqueness that it moved me to write extensive commentary to the course. Before finalizing each module, I ran the commentary by Bob for his input. The result of this collaboration was an ePub initially sold by Binovi as the Sanet Seminar Series. Binovi stopped operating in the optometric vision therapy space, and Bob and I were faced with a decision about how to perpetuate this unique product. We decided that this time we wanted to partner with company whose raison d’etre was optometric vision therapy, and we knew of none better than Emergent. Both head honcho Ben Winters, OD, FCOVD, and his trusty sidekick James Smith, COVT, had taken the Sanet Seminar courses and considered it to be transformative. They were delighted with the idea of making the new ePub more widely available.

Fast forward to the new version of the ePub, which you can preview here. The are samples provided of the video content as well as the commentary, but I wanted to give you a more in-depth look at the commentary. Although it is contained within the ePub and not yet available in a print version, Emergent is contemplating making that available.

At the risk of sounding braggadocius, seeing the commentary printed out at the Emergent booth at the COVD meeting reminded me how difficult it would be to conceptualize the totality of its contents until one actually had the ePub in hand. What that in mind, I offer the following overview.

• Vision Therapy Procedures – As valuable as many aspects of the Sanet Seminar Series are, any doc or therapist engaged in VT is always on the lookout for either new procedures, or a deeper appreciation of procedures with which you already have some familiarity. Pausing the video enabled me to do screen shots of key procedures at pivotal moments. As someone who attended the course, I found the lecture/demonstration format stimulating. However, there is so much material presented that it is challenging to absorb it all. I think that’s one reasons why so many people take the Sanet Seminar courses numerous times. The commentary captures the essence of the VT procedures presented, facilitating your ability to appreciate the instructional sets and responses involved.

Among my favorite insights are nuances involved in the Space Fixator, and eye position in accommodative and vergence thinking.

• Parquetry Blocks and Multi-Matrix – Bob rightly makes a big fuss about the insights that his wife, Linda Sanet, COVT, brings to a variety of therapy concepts and procedures, but perhaps none more deeply so than parquetry blocks, followed by Carl Hillier, OD, FCOVD, utilizing his multi-matrix procedures. I consciously held back on adding original content here, choosing rather to focus on organizing the incredible presentation by facilitating the flow to make it easier for doctors and therapists to review the invaluable material.

• Airplanes: Mine and Bob’s – Inevitably, in a course of this nature, there are times during the live seminar when Dr. Sanet goes on “flights of fancy”. By that we mean some freelancing of what pops into his head that he budgets into the time frame of the seminar. At various points in my commentary I’ll use the airplane icon to serve as what Bob refers to as his “air traffic controller”, referencing the points to what has been noted previously, or might upcoming in order to help connect the dots. Elsewhere you’ll see me put my out airplanes out there, and add references from source some of which Bob mentions and others that I’ve added to the concepts.

• Clinical Pearls – Interspersed throughout the commentary, the clinical pearls are personally what I had the most fun doing. Feedback that I’ve gotten on the commentary from users is that the blending of my clinical experiences together with insights from the ophthalmic literature complements Bob’s experiences in an enjoyable and informative way. From a personal standpoint. Articles that Bob and I co-authored on amblyopia, together with Pilar Vergara, reflect this synergy. The same thing occurs with the material involving acquired brain injury.

• Interposition of Slides – a significant number of slides are interposed with the commentary, making it easier for readers to follow the flow. I consciously explained things here particularly for the benefit of newer therapists who may have a difficulty time grasping why things work the way they do.

On a final note, I’ve merged considerable original material into the commentary from the VisionHelp blogs that I’ve written, and from the eBook edition of Applied Concepts in Vision Therapy. Individuals who purchased the original ePub Series through Binovi can obtain the Emergent version for a nominal admin fee. For those who haven’t seen it yet, the preview should give you a better feel for why this is such an invaluable resource that works on any device, and can be a significant development tool for both doctors and therapists.