By Staff
Wednesday, September 27, 2023 4:50 PM
NOVATO, Calif.—As Zenni Optical embarks on its next 20 years, one of the world’s leading online eyewear retailers, which marked its 20th anniversary in May of this year, reports that it continues to build a team that can drive innovation and growth and create new ways to bring eyewear and eyecare to customers and businesses. Zenni has added several new members to its leadership team who will work together "to elevate the importance of eye health, revolutionize the prescription process and optimize Zenni’s global operations and manufacturing," the company told
VMAIL.
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By Staff
Wednesday, September 27, 2023 4:38 PM
DaTE, the Florence eyewear show, held its 11th Edition at Stazione Leopolda over 2 days in September. This year, the organizers said the product lineup was quite varied, with designs for all types of customers. They included genderless styles, sustainable products in bio-based acetate or recycled carbon fiber, exclusive materials, like Indian buffalo horn, or combinations of luxurious wood and gold with acetate, alongside recycled objects, vintage shapes inspired by the classics of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and entirely hand-made and tailor-made products as well as those printed using 3D technology. This year the DaTE event also hosted some participants for the first time from South Korea and Tunisia. Approximately 1,000 high-profile industry professionals and buyers attended, according to the organizers.
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By Staff
Monday, September 25, 2023 5:33 PM
Cooling temperatures, shorter days and the turning of leaves to bright autumn colors can also bring unwelcomed seasonal allergies, among them ocular allergies that can include irritating symptoms such as red, swollen, or itchy eyes, burning or tearing of the eyes, and an increased sensitivity to light. According to the American Optometric Association, ocular allergies, or allergic conjunctivitis, is one of the most common ocular surface diseases in primary eyecare. Seasonal allergic conjunctivitis and perennial allergic conjunctivitis alone make up 95 percent of all allergic conjunctivitis in the U.S. Yet allergic conjunctivitis is often unaddressed largely due to its relatively benign nature. The good news for fall eye allergy sufferers is that prevention and treatment for seasonal allergies is well within reach.
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By Staff
Monday, September 25, 2023 5:30 PM
"Whoever thought that an optometrist could be cool?” reads one of the endless positive Yelp reviews on Urban Optics’ owner Dave Schultz, OD. All it takes is a quick conversation to confirm—Dr. Dave, as he’s known around town, is very cool. Schultz has been providing the Central Coast town of San Luis Obispo, Calif., (nicknamed SLO) with quality eyewear and eyecare for over 30 years. Designed to look more like an art gallery than an optometric practice, the store’s custom interior has won architectural awards, and he commissions artwork to display in his business. Five years ago,
20/20 first introduced our readers to Urban Optics with a Successful Retail Strategy feature, and we decided it was time to revisit the optical store to catch up with Schultz and learn what’s new.
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By Staff
Friday, September 22, 2023 3:32 PM
NEW YORK—World leaders met in New York yesterday to discuss the value of vision to the world. More than 2.2 billion people, almost one-third of humanity, currently live with vision impairment, with 1.1 billion people suffering from avoidable sight loss, 90 percent of whom live in middle-and-lower-income countries. The meeting, hosted by Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda and supported by organizations in the eye health sector, heard that unaddressed poor sight costs the global economy $411 billion in lost productivity each year and impedes a states’ ability to eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities.
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By Staff
Friday, September 22, 2023 3:29 PM
The evaluation and diagnosis of dry eye is challenging. It’s a multifactorial condition, and reported symptoms aren’t always consistent with ocular surface changes. Generally, diagnosis of dry-eye disease entails patient history and slit-lamp examination, with additional testing performed as needed. According to Stephen Pflugfelder, MD, who’s in practice at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, it’s important to evaluate both signs and symptoms. “A patient could be a grade 4 from symptoms alone but not really have any signs, or he or she could be a grade 4 with signs but have no symptoms. In either case, treatment should be tailored to the severity, and it will determine how aggressive you want to be and what your options for therapy will be,” he said.
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By Staff
Thursday, September 21, 2023 3:06 PM
NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, Sept. 11–17, when compared with the previous week at a rate of 20 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 4 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 38) when compared with last year (2022), 14 points above the same period in 2021, 4 points above 2020 and 17 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker. All optical sales categories were up last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of 20 index points for gross revenue, 19 index points for exams/refractions, 16 index points for frame units, 17 index points for lens pairs and 10 index points for contact lenses.
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By Staff
Thursday, September 21, 2023 2:45 PM
Cycloplegic refractive error measurements are clearly preferred for identifying myopia onset in children. Still, axial length using interferometry and swept-source techniques is the preferred metric to assess myopia progression due to its advantage in terms of precision, reliability, and ease of use. Axial length measurements coupled with percentile charts further improve patient awareness and engagement in myopia management. Race and ethnicity, which are terms interchangeably used in myopia literature, have been reported as risk factors for myopia due to the higher prevalence and earlier onset of myopia in East Asian countries compared to European populations.
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By Staff
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 2:35 PM
CHICAGO—Prevent Blindness, a leading eye health and safety organization, is joining the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and fellow eye health organizations across the globe, to raise awareness about vision and eye health issues and promote access to eyecare as part of “World Sight Day” on Oct. 12, 2023. This year’s theme, “Love Your Eyes at Work,” was chosen to help people understand the importance of protecting their vision in the workplace, and to call on business leaders to prioritize the eye health of workers everywhere, according to IAPB.
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By Staff
Wednesday, September 20, 2023 2:21 PM
Many studies have shown that social determinants of overall health have a role in people’s eye health. Researchers at the University of Michigan believe that individuals with unstable housing and food insecurity may have difficulty accessing eyecare resources, which can impact vision outcomes. A recent study of theirs, published in
Ophthalmology, evaluated the relationship between these two social risk factors and vision status. Patients reporting unstable housing with or without food insecurity had greater odds of presenting with visual impairment and with uncorrected or under-corrected refractive error compared to those with stable housing.
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By Staff
Tuesday, September 19, 2023 3:36 PM
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Advancing Eyecare, a leading North America provider of ophthalmic instruments, today announced the appointments of Jim McGrann as chief executive officer and David Spear as president and chief strategy officer, both effective immediately, as the company positions itself for its next phase of growth. Advancing Eyecare is an alliance of industry leaders offering comprehensive ophthalmic solutions, including Lombart Healthcare, Marco Healthcare, Enhanced Medical Services, Veatch Ophthalmic Instruments, Santinelli International/Sios, Innova Medical and S40Optik. McGrann has 25 years of experience in vision care, including roles as president and CEO of VSP Vision, and chairman and CEO of the Professional Eye Care Associates of America (PECAA), which VSP acquired in October 2022.
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By Staff
Tuesday, September 19, 2023 3:18 PM
An organization many of you have never heard of, Health Level 7 (HL7), is providing funding for a project to map eyecare data to Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (C-CDA), which is shared through Direct Secure Messaging (DSM). HL7 is the organization that creates the standards on which health information is shared between providers and organizations. The goal of HL7 is to enable health care organizations to create uniform data that anyone with authorization can retrieve and use in their own systems. An HL7 survey conducted earlier this year, found that specialty areas of medicine, especially optometry, lag behind the rest of medicine in the ability to electronically communicate patient health information.
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By Staff
Monday, September 18, 2023 3:09 PM
Fall means the launch of new products and styles across all sectors of the optical industry. Whether shopping for the latest frames to carry in your office or finding the most cutting edge equipment to improve production times in your lab, now is the time to check out what’s new in optics. In this week’s Today’s Read, we talk to industry insiders who are sharing what they see as this fall's hottest trends in design and technology. We will be highlighting these and many more new and innovative fashion and equipment trends in upcoming issues as we report on Vision Expo West, scheduled to take place September 27–30 at the Venetian Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas.
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By Staff
Monday, September 18, 2023 2:57 PM
Her son’s preschool gave Stephanie Lyons, OD, one of her best ideas for removing some of the fear factor for kids coming into her Chicago, Illinois, Lyons Family Eye Care. The preschool had made what it called “a social story” to help reduce first-day-of-school anxiety. Using photos and kid-friendly language, the online story helped kids know what to expect. Dr. Lyons realized that it could help her young patients reduce their anxiety, too. She created a fun 20-page PDF that’s posted on the pediatrics tab of her website and calls it the “office tour.” It explains every step of the process from what they’ll see when they walk in, the pretesting and an invitation to sit in the big orange chair.
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By Staff
Friday, September 15, 2023 11:56 AM
AURORA, Colo.—Peak Artisan Labs (PAL) has announced the addition of 10 private practice eyecare providers to its growing ownership group, as part of the company's commitment to independent eyecare. Established in July 2023, Peak Artisan Labs serves the Rocky Mountain and north central regions. Based here, and a key member of the Artisan Lab Network (ALN) founded in 2023, PAL’s latest expansion further solidifies its position in the optical industry, according to an announcement from the company.
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