Mary Kane, Executive Editor
Mary helps to oversee the editorial coverage of
Vision Monday and its print publication,
VMAIL, e-newsletters,
VisionMonday.com and the
Vision Expo Dailies. She also covers general company news, industry developments and business trends, as well as professional associations news and features. She is also responsible for deadline queries and operational questions for
Vision Monday print editions and
VMAIL. Contact Mary at
mkane@jobson.com.
By Mary Kane
Friday, March 24, 2023 3:00 PM
Nearly three years to the day of when lockdowns began during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Javits Center opened its doors on March 17 to thousands of vendors, buyers, eyecare professionals and industry leaders. “This is the first year where it feels like the energy is back,” VSP Vision’s Stevie Mitchell keenly observed. Vision Expo East was the largest gathering of ophthalmic professionals in the U.S. in recent years. The Show, which ran from March 16 -19, welcomed thousands from the international vision care industry. Read on for a recap of some of Expo’s major highlights as well as photos of some of the many Show Floor events.
By Mary Kane
Friday, March 17, 2023 8:30 AM
Back in February of 2017, the sales and editorial team at
VM got the bright idea to put out a weekend edition and we called it, what else,
VMAIL Weekend. At the time, it seemed like a scary premise to add a 6th newsletter to our weekly news and feature-writing arsenal but in retrospect, it was a bold and rewarding move. Our biggest challenge with
Weekend has always been coming up with ideas for our anchor feature called Today’s Read. The TR was always meant to be a feature-driven story that readers could curl up with on a Saturday morning along with a cup of hot coffee. Six years later, it turns out the TRs have produced some of our most popular stories ever. So here are our top 5 most popular TR stories from
Weekend. Happy reading.
By Mary Kane
Friday, March 3, 2023 8:30 AM
When 14-year old Harini Venkatesh’s younger sister visited the eye doctor for her first checkup and came home complaining that she hadn’t been able to tell what was blurry and what wasn’t when the doctor had asked, she thought to herself, there has to be a better way to do this. “It was jarring to realize that her experience at an optometrist’s office would be very different than mine.” So she set out to find a solution and ended up winning second place in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge with Discovery Education, for her prototype titled The Comptometrist: An Efficient Way to Determine Myopic Power.
By Mary Kane
Friday, February 10, 2023 8:30 AM
Let’s face it, football is a very statistical game. And as we all know, for play-by-play announcers and color commentators, there is no shortage of stats on any given Sunday. When the Philadelphia Eagles face the Kansas City Chiefs at 6:30 tomorrow night, it is estimated that nearly 193 million adults will tune into Fox TV to watch the big game, according to data from National Retail Federation. With only one day left until the season’s biggest game,
VMAIL Weekend thought it would be a kick to list some fun facts about Super Bowl LVII as well as some stats from games in past years.
By Mary Kane
Friday, January 13, 2023 8:30 AM
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about three million Americans have glaucoma and the disease is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. January is officially National Glaucoma Awareness month and during this time, it’s important to spread the word about this group of diseases that affects many Americans every year.
VMAIL Weekend recently sat down with Ashish Singh, MD, who specializes in cataract and refractive surgery at Kleiman Evangelista Eye Centers. Here’s what he had to say about the early signs of glaucoma, encouraging high-risk patients to get screened on a regular basis and new glaucoma treatments.
By Mary Kane
Friday, December 16, 2022 8:30 AM
For anyone in the fashion or design industry, color can be a beautiful thing. But it can also be a very valuable tool on any designer’s palette. Color has the power to (pardon the pun) set the tone for just about everything—from sneakers to smartphones to packaging and the color of a room. The folks at the Pantone Color Institute know a thing or two about color and the effect it can have on creating just the right mood or atmosphere.
Viva Magenta 18-1750, which Pantone describes as a color that “vibrates with vim and vigor” has been named the Pantone color of the year for 2023. Pantone describes the color as “brave and fearless … a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative.”
By Mary Kane
Tuesday, November 22, 2022 9:30 AM
According to the
2022 National Diabetes Statistics Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 11 percent of the U.S. population (approximately 37.3 million people) have diabetes. Alarmingly, 96 million people aged 18 years or older have prediabetes, which is 38 percent of the adult U.S. population. And, diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among adults aged 18–64 years.
VMAIL Weekend sat down with Kristen Nwanyanwu, MD, MBA, MHS, associate professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale School of Medicine. Here’s what she had to say about how ECPs can improve the lines of communication with Primary Care Physicians and why it’s so important for diabetes patients to have a care plan.
By Mary Kane
Friday, November 18, 2022 8:30 AM
It is said that the eyes are a window to the soul, but in some instances the eyes are also a window to the heart. According to a new study from
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, patients with a specific form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), are also highly likely to have either underlying heart damage from heart failure and heart attacks, or advanced heart valve disease, or carotid artery disease associated with certain types of strokes. The research, published this month, is the first to identify which types of high-risk cardiovascular and carotid artery disease are linked to the eye disorder.
By Mary Kane
Friday, October 14, 2022 8:30 AM
With Halloween just two weeks away, it’s a good time for ECPs to talk with patients about contact lens safety and the dangers of wearing lenses that are dispensed without an eye exam or a prescription. According to the Food and Drug Administration, wearing decorative contact lenses can be risky and wearing any kind of contact lenses, including decorative ones, can cause serious damage to your eyes if the lenses are obtained without a prescription or are not used correctly. Here are some of the things that can go terribly wrong with your eyes when wearing decorative or cosmetic contact lenses sold in stores or online.
By Mary Kane
Monday, September 26, 2022 12:00 AM
LAS VEGAS—It was a wrap for Vision Expo West 2022 in Las Vegas on Saturday, Sept. 17, as the four-day event concluded at The Venetian Convention Center & Expo. The Conference and Exhibiton, brought thousands of members of the optical industry together from Sept. 14-17 for four days of trailblazing trends, education and plenty of networking opportunities. “It was amazing to see the full scope of the vision care industry come together in Las Vegas last week, both on and off the Show Floor,” said Fran Pennella, vice president, Vision Expo, at
RX, co-organizer of Vision Expo.
By Mary Kane
Friday, September 9, 2022 8:30 AM
With Labor Day in the rear view mirror, the back-to-school season is upon us, which means kids’ after school sports activities are in full swing.
Prevent Blindness, the nation’s leading volunteer nonprofit eye health organization, has declared September as Sports Eye Safety Month to help educate the public on the importance of wearing the proper eye protection while playing sports.
Annual data from Prevent Blindness shows that there were more than 26,000 sports-related eye injuries treated in the U.S. last year. The new data also showed that the category of “non-powder guns, darts, arrows and slingshots” had the overall highest rate of eye injuries for the previous year.
By Mary Kane
Friday, August 12, 2022 8:30 AM
All summer long, the
Global Myopia Awareness Coalition (GMAC) has been joining forces with children’s optometrist
Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Warford in a myopia awareness campaign known as a Screen Staycation. Did you know that just 76 extra minutes outside a day can reduce the risk of myopia by 50 percent? That’s why Dr. Nate and GMAC are encouraging families to spend more time outdoors this summer and take a Screen Staycation—a challenge to go 24 hours without any screens. To help families get started with their outdoor activities, GMAC has been offering Screen Staycation kits which include, a Frisbee, a kite, sunscreen, and of course, sunglasses.
Weekend caught up with Dr. Nate to talk about how the campaign is going and what’s on the horizon for families dealing with myopia.
By Mary Kane
Friday, August 5, 2022 8:30 AM
With only a few weeks left in the month of August, summer will be winding down soon which means parents and kids alike are gearing up for the back-to-school season, or as some parents like to call it, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” For the national non-profit Prevent Blindness, August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, which fits nicely into the organization’s theme—2022 is the “Year of Children’s Vision.” Without early detection and treatment, uncorrected vision disorders can impair child development, interfere with learning, and even lead to permanent vision loss.
By Mary Kane
Friday, July 8, 2022 8:30 AM
For many of us, technology has become more of a necessity than a luxury, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While our various electronic devices do help connect us and has allowed many people to work remotely, excessive screen time can also lead to problems like
eye strain. Because of this,
MyVision.org was curious to see if the pandemic has led to more eye issues over the last two years. The organization surveyed more than 1,000 people who wear glasses and/or contacts to get feedback on their eye health and eye habits throughout the past few years. Based on the survey results, it turns out that many people are having vision problems, but are putting off going to the eye doctor.
By Mary Kane
Friday, June 3, 2022 8:30 AM
“Having the surgery was life-changing. I can see everything from the time on my alarm clock to a bird’s nest in a tree hundreds of feet away without glasses. It’s the most amazing experience I’ve ever had.” At age 49, Michael Sargent’s vision had become so impaired by cataracts that he couldn’t distinguish shapes or colors without his glasses on, even if objects were right in front of him. His ophthalmologist recommended cataract surgery and the results were life-changing. Throughout June,
Prevent Blindness and the
American Academy of Ophthalmology are among the many eyecare organizations, practitioners and groups making a major push to educate the public about the detection and treatment of cataracts.